



»•*'• *> 







V^ 







^«< .vaster- ^ o1 * 




,/\. 




* < 










v^y \*-^V v^V" V 






Ov a * o m *k~ 














t •© 










v^y V- 










J> ..... <>. 















SERMONS 



ON 



THE SECOND ADVENT 



OF THE 



LORD JESUS CHRIST 



BY THE 

REV. HUGH M'NEILE, M. A 

MINISTER OF ST. JCDE'S CHURCH, LIVERPOOL. 




/ 



PHILADELPHIA: 
ORRIN ROGERS, 67 SOUTH SECOND STREET 

E. G. Dorsey, Printer. 

1840. 



w 



z 



*& 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

(Not in the former Editions) 13 



SERMON I. 

THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven'? this same Jesus, 
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
as ye have seen him go into heaven. — Acts i. 11, 35 

SERMON II. 

SIGNS OF THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away cap- 
tives into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gen- 
tiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 

And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars; and 

upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the 

waves roaring. 
Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things 

which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be 

shaken. 
And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power 

and great glory. 
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up 

your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh. — St. Luke xxi. 24-28, 48 

SERMON III. 

THE CITY OF CONFUSION TO BE DESTROYED AT THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD \ 

JESUS CHRIST. 

For thou hast made of a city an heap, of a defenced city a ruin; a palace 
of strangers to be no city;" it shall never be built. — Isaiah xxv. 2, - - 59 



jy CONTENTS. 

SERMON IV. 

THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN ITS CONNEXION WITH THE 
DISPERSION AND COMING RESTORATION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. 

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest 
ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is hap- 
pened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of 
Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 

For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 

As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touch- 
ing the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. 

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. — Romans xi. 
25-29, 72 

SERMON V. 

THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN ITS CONNEXION WITH THE 
PRESENT SUFFERING, AND COMING GLORY OF THE SAINTS; THE PRESENT PROUD 
PROSPERITY, AND COMING UTTER DESTRUCTION OF THE UNGODLY. 

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them 
that trouble you. 

And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be 
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels; in naming fire, taking 
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of 
the Lord, and from the glory of his power. — 2 Thess. i. 6-9, - - - - 88 

SERMON VI. 

THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN ITS CONNEXION WITH THE 
PRESENT GROANING MISERY, AND THE COMING RENOVATION UNTO BLESSEDNESS, OF 
THE WHOLE EARTH. 

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold! I make aril things new. 
And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. — 
Rev. xxi. 5, _.-._. _ \qq 



SERMON VII. 

THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN ITS EXPERIMENTAL AND 
PRACTICAL POWER OVER THE TRUE BELIE VER's HEART. 

To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me, in my throne; even 
as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. — 
Rev. iii. 21, - - - - 112 



PREFACE. 



The following Sermons were preached in the ordinary 
course of the Author's Ministry, during the season of Advent, 
and without any original intention of publication. They were 
taken down in short-hand at the instance of some members of 
the Congregation, and sent to me in manuscript, with a request 
that I would prepare them for the press. I have done so with 
care; and my heart's desire and prayer in the publication, as in 
the preaching of them, is this — my God! who hast called 
me to the ministry of thy glorious Gospel, bless me in it, and 
make me a blessing; teach me to speak thy truth, and teach thy 
people to receive it with pure affection; teach me to sow the 
seed of eternal life, and teach them to reap the same; that both 
he who soweth, and they who reap, may rejoice together, in 
the day of the Lord Jesus! 

There still exists a prejudice against the views of unfulfilled 
prophecy, which are advocated in these Sermons. It is sup- 
posed that they are curiously speculative rather than experi- 
mentally practical; and that all those persons who entertain 
them, must of necessity belong to the visionary school of mo- 
dern fanaticism, rather than to the "good old way" of sound 
and sober theology. 

It must indeed be confessed, that several distressing causes 
have conspired to give too much apparent ground for this 
opinion. But it ought in fairness to be remembered, that 
accurate and candid discrimination, is an indispensable ingre- 
dient in every intelligent and honest inquiry. It is the part 
of the disingenuous to mingle truth and falsehood together in 
one mixture. It is the danger of the unwary, either to receive 
or reject the whole mixture without discrimination. In either 
case, our great Enemy triumphs. If the whole mixture be 
rejected, one of his objects is gained in the suppression of truth. 
If the whole be received, another of his objects is gained in the 
circulation of error. It is the privilege of the wise to discri- 
minate; to analyze the mixture; to adhere to truth against every 
14 



j y PREFACE. 

hindrance, against every species of obloquy, or difficulty, or 
distress; and to reject and resist error, in the face of every 
solicitation, and blandishment, and bribe of a compromising 
world : to prove all things, and to hold fast that which is 
good. * 

I. First, then; an inquiry into the true interpretation of the 
unfulfilled prophecies of Scripture, ought not to be judged by 
the unscriptural conjectures in which some of its advocates have 
indulged. Precise dates have been given. Geographical, 
architectural, and other details have been insisted on. And 
even individual men and measures of modern times, have been 
confidently set forth, as specially intended in such and such 
prophecies. By interpretations (if they deserve that name) of 
this character, the writer of the following pages has been deeply 
grieved. But, surely, it would be most unreasonable to be 
thereby deterred altogether from any inquiry, into so large a 
portion of the word of God; all of which has been given by 
inspiration, and written for our learning. 

It is undeniable, that some persons abuse the doctrines of the 
free grace of God, and the all-sufficient atonement of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, into an excuse for careless living. But does it 
therefore follow, that we must either become Antinomians, or 
reject the Gospel altogether? Surely not. In like manner, 
some persons abuse the true and proper humanity of the Lord 
Jesus, into Socinianism. But does it therefore follow, that we 
must either become Socinians, or deny the Saviour's manhood? 
Surely not. 

In all such cases, discrimination is wisdom; and without 
pains-taking inquiry, men must fall into error, either of excess 
or defect. The same is true in the case now before us. Some 
persons have identified the "wilful king" of Daniel xi. with 
Napoleon Bonaparte; and one interpreter has proceeded 
gravely to inform his readers, that the "ships of Chittim," 
mentioned by the Prophet at the 30th verse of that chapter, 
designated the British fleet, under Lord Nelson, in the year 
1798, and more particularly, the squadron, under Sir Sidney 
Smith, which prevented Bonaparte from getting possession of 
St. John d'Acre.t Is it then a matter of necessity, that we 
must either adopt such a line as this; or altogether give up any 
further examination of what the prophets have written? Dis- 
crimination is wisdom; and if we refuse to exercise it upon this 
subject, we expose ourselves to the risk of either receiving, as 
the word of God, the ingenious fancies of men, or of rejecting 
as the fancies of men, the true and faithful word of God. 

* 1 Thess. v. 21. t See Frere's Combined View, &e. pp. 404—406. 



PREFACE. v 

II. This subject ought not to be judged by the practical in- 
consistencies of individual advocates, however distinguished. 
This has been done in our own times. The names of certain 
prominent men were associated with a literal interpretation of 
prophecy, for a considerable time: and then, afterwards, when 
those men embraced erroneous doctrines, or at least contended 
for modes of expression, and proceeded into the wild extrava- 
gance of supposed miraculous inspiration, in support of this 
error, and so eventually added schism to heresy — the whole 
weight of the opprobrium so incurred, recoiled upon the study 
of unfulfilled prophecy, and many persons were deterred from 
the inquiry altogether, and others who had entered upon it, 
gave it up, as though it were the inevitable precursor of some 
mischievous aberration. 

The writer has been constrained to feel these things in deep 
bitterness of spirit; and he cannot look back upon the events 
of the last few years, without humbly adoring the rich unmerit- 
ed mercy of a preserving God, by which a poor helpless sin- 
ner was enabled to detect the beginnings of error, and from 
that moment to resist the influence of associations long cherish- 
ed; and at last, being compelled to the alternative, to break off 
all communication with men much beloved, rather than com- 
promise his own convictions of the truth of God. "Bless the 
Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits," his watchful 
care, his restraining grace, his preserving power! 

III. Man is a reasonable creature, and God deals with him 
as such. The great object, so far as man is concerned, of the 
truth revealed, is character to be produced. Sanctify them 
through thy truth, is the language of the great Intercessor, 
thy word is truth. But in order that truth may produce this 
transforming effect upon the character, it must be received as 
truth; really and cordially received; so that the heart can repose 
upon it with confidence as truth indeed. To require that any 
statement shall be felt to be practical before it is cordially be- 
lieved to be true, is manifestly to subvert the order of cause 
and effect. The primary question is, what view of the subject 
is true? What is, indeed, revealed? What may I safely be- 
lieve and trust in, so as afterwards to experience its practical 
influence? 

"The coming of the Lord — the day of Christ — the day when 
the Son of man shall be revealed — the Lord himself shall de- 
scend from heaven — the Lord shall be King over all the earth 
— if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him — we 
shall reign on the earth." — Whatever may be the true meaning 
of these and similar expressions, it is certain that by them all 
watchfulness, sobriety, diligence, and universal devotedness to 



v i PREFACE. 

God, are most urgently pressed upon the Church, in the Holy 
Scriptures. 

In a work, for which I gladly avail myself of this opportunity 
to express my grateful acknowledgments to the learned Author, 
(a gratitude which I feel, in common, I am persuaded, with a 
large number of my Brethren in the ministry of the Church) 
Mr. Townsend, thus states the difference between the Jewish 
and the Christian expectation of a Messiah. 

"You demand a temporal — we a spiritual deliverer. In this 
lies the difference between us. If a temporal Messiah is the 
object of the prophecies, he has not come; if a spiritual Messiah 
is to be expected, Jesus of Nazareth was the desire of nations!" 
He then further defines what he supposes the Jew to expect, 
under this title, a temporal Messiah. "In looking for a tem- 
poral Messiah, you anticipate a Being fit for earth alone. The 
Messiah whom we receive, was fit for earth, and for heaven. 
Your Messiah is a mere mortal, who must linger through his 
few years of feverish renown, 'pleased with this trifle still, as 
that before.' Our's is an immortal; who came down from an 
invisible world, to elevate the whole human race, and restore 
them to communion with God. Your Messiah is expected to 
triumph, as a Caesar or Napoleon, over the bodies of the 
slaughtered, amid the groans of the dying, and the tears of the 
widow and the orphan; our's shall mount to universal dominion 
by subduing the heart, and by changing the sword into the 
ploughshare, and banishing tears and grief for ever: Which is 
most glorious? Your's is compatible with all the lion passions 
of the heart: our's is only compatible with the conquest of self, 
with pure motives, and a holy life. Which is most worthy of 
an immortal — which yields most praise to God?"* 

It is not my present purpose, to inquire how far this is an 
accurate representation of the opinions of such Jews (if there 
be any such) as believe Moses and the prophets. I quote the 
passage, because I apprehend that it expresses the difference 
which is very generally supposed to exist, between two classes 
of Christian interpreters — the spiritual, and the literal. In re- 
ference to the Jirst Advent of the Messiah, there is no differ- 
ence among Christian interpreters, in this respect. All under- 
stand the prophecies literally. But in reference to his second 
Advent, those who advocate a similarly literal interpretation, 
are too often spoken and written against, as if they anticipated 
a Being fit for this earth alone, in its present fallen state: a mere 
mortal conqueror like Csesar or Napoleon, whose character is 

* Towsend's Arrangements of the New Testament. Edit. 3. Introduction 
— pp. lxxviii. and lxxiv. 



PREFACE. Vii 

compatible with the indulgence of all the lion passions of the 
heart. 

Nothing, however, can be more remote from our anticipa- 
tions. We do indeed expect a Messiah fit for earth; but it shall 
be that new earth which God hath promised, and wherein 
dwelleth righteousness. And we do believe that the new earth 
so promised, and so described, is not some other region in 
space, or some other planet created for the purpose; but this 
planet renewed: that is, restored from all the accursed conse- 
quences of the sin of the first Adam; and made the everlasting 
abode of that most glorious manifestation of God, which is given 
in the human nature of the second Adam, Jesus Christ our 
Lord, and in the members of his mystical body raised and 
transformed into his perfect likeness, both body and soul. We 
do, indeed, expect a conquering Messiah; and as the result of 
his conquests, we anticipate the fulfilment of that glorious pre- 
diction, "The kingdoms of this world (for his kingdom will 
then be on earth) are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and 
of his anointed; and he shall reign for ever and ever."* 

"To maintain the contrary supposition, is surely to destroy 
the consistency of the scheme of Revelation, and to render void 
the most solemn declarations of Jehovah. If, according to the 
prevalent opinion, this material world be doomed to destruc- 
tion, and not to renovation; if Christ shall come only as a 
mighty judge, to hold a last assize, to separate the righteous 
from the wicked, and then to annihilate the globe on which the 
career of guilt has been achieved, will not the bright promises 
of creative power to man be blighted and defaced? Will not a 
boast of dreadful blasphemy console the host of hell; And when 
they mark the earth, encircled by the burning flame which 
now blazons forth its doom of death to higher abodes; and 
when they shall contrast the fearful scene with that quiet home 
of heavenly eulogy, in which 'the morning stars sang together, 
and the sons of GOD shouted for joy/ will they not rejoice in 
the strength of their misrule, and find a recompense for rebellion 
in the successful wreck of a fair and beauteous world? 

# . * . * ^ ■ # * . #■.#,.'#.'* 

"It may confirm the view here given of the future, to inquire 
into the nature of that felicity which our Lord himself has 
taught us to expect. It would be natural to suppose, that in 
the selection of blessings, which he condescended to make the 
subject of our prayers to God, the consummation of his own 
work of mercy would find a marked place. The supposition 
is consistent with the fact. He has concentrated a prayer for 
the completion of his own work, in the two remarkable ex- 

* Rev. xi. 15. 
15 



v jjj PREFACE. 

pressions, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth 
as in heaven. " If we lay aside the prepossessions of educa- 
tion, shall we refuse to admit that our Lord here bounds our 
view to this scene of earth? In heaven, that is, in the other 
regions of the universe of God, his will is already done: but 
here we are surrounded with a scene of rebellion, anarchy, and 
sorrow. Does he then teach us to pray for a translation from 
this unquiet land to another and distant orb? He puts no 
such request within our lips: he directs us to pray for the 
establishment of his kingdom, and this kingdom appears to 
belong exclusively to this material earth. 'Thy will be done 
in earth, as in heaven.' Is not the inference twofold, first, 
that the earth is the theatre of his kingdom; and secondly, 
that conformity to his will is the absolute enjoyment of heaven? 
and that no loftier supplication can be associated with our 
thoughts, than that the hallowed sceptre should be replaced in 
human hands, even in the hand of the mighty Antitype, 'the 
second Adam, the Lord from heaven.' " 

"I ask then the Christian reader, if it be not our duty to 
call away our minds from human opinions; from the influence 
even of great names; from popular belief, however ancient; 
from theories, however venerable; from the prescriptive ap- 
plause of centuries; from the vague and indistinct ritual of 
education; and to take our firm, courageous, and patient stand 
upon the plain, grammatical, unwarped text of Scripture, the 
clear and lucid decisions of Eternal Wisdom and Truth." 

"That wondrous volume, the charter of human hope, the 
anchor of human faith, affords instruction definite, and expec- 
tations precise. Jesus Christ is linked to our world by ties 
less fragile than those which human theology has framed. 
Surely he will come again, and exhibit those ties in all their 
beauty and in all their strength."* 

IV. The Jewish nation occupies a very distinguished feature 
in the history of the world; and it is no slight argument in 
favour of the literal interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy, that 
while that nation presents an unmanageable difficulty to others, 
it forms one of our strongholds. Some interpreters seem 
scarcely aware of the inconsistency they incur, by allowing a 
literal interpretation of the prophecies respecting the restora- 
tion of the Jews, while they refuse to admit a similarly literal 
interpretation of the prophecies, respecting the reappearance 
and reign of the King of the Jews; though they are interwoven 
in the same contexts, by the inspiring Spirit of truth. Mr. 

* Prospects of the Christian Church, by the Hon. and Rev. G. T. Noel. 
pp. 24—27. 



PREFACE. i x 

Townsend says: "Of the unfulfilled prophecies of God, the 
most splendid, the most numerous, and apparently the most 
easy of execution, are those which relate to the Jews. They 
will again plant the vine and the olive upon their native hills, 
and reap their harvests in the valleys of their fathers/' Then, 
after expressing some doubtfulness, as to the mode by which 
they shall be borne back to Palestine, he calls "their own, un- 
occupied, uncultivated, unregarded land, the central spot on 
earth, where the metropolitical Church of God may be most 
suitably established." In illustration of this, he appends a 
note, from Mr. King's remarks upon Palestine, considered as 
the centre of the millennial empire of Christ upon earth; which 
he truly says, are highly worthy of notice. "How capable 
this country is of a more universal intercourse than any other, 
with all parts of the earth, is most remarkable, and deserves 
well to be considered, when we read of the numerous prophe- 
cies which speak of its future splendour and greatness; when 
its people shall at length be gathered from all parts of the 
earth unto which they are scattered, and restored to their own 
land. There is no region in the world, to which- an access 
from all parts is so open. By means of the Black Sea and the 
Mediterranean, there is an easy approach from all parts of 
Europe, from a great part of Africa, and from America. By 
means of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and the well 
known roads from thence, there is an approach from Africa, 
from the East Indies, and from the Isles. And lastly, by 
means of the Caspian, the Lake or Sea of Bayhall, and the 
near communication of many great rivers, the approach is 
facilitated from all the northern parts of Tartary. In short, if 
a skilful geographer were to sit down to devise the fittest spot 
on the globe for universal empire, or, rather a spot where 
all the great intercourses of human life should universally cen- 
tre, and from whence, the extended effects of universal be- 
nevolence, and good will, should flow to all parts of the earth; 
and where universal and united homage should be paid, with 
one consent, to the Most High, he would not find another so 
suited, in all circumstances, as that which is, with emphasis, 
called the Holy Land. These observations, perhaps, may not 
deserve great weight, but they ought not to be wholly ne- 
glected; especially when it is considered how many passages 
of Scripture there are, which plainly declare that the time 
shall at length come when Zion shall be the joy of the whole 
earth."* 

But these numerous passages of Scripture, declare as plainly, 

* Townsend's Arrangement — Introduction, pp. lxviii. lxix. 



x PREFACE. 

that when Zion shall be the joy of the whole earth, the Lord 
himself on the throne of David, in Jerusalem, shall be the joy, 
and light, and glory of Zion. Now, if the portions of passages 
which apply to the nation and the land, be thus admitted to 
the favour of a literal interpretation by these respectable and 
sober-minded commentators; upon what principle of consis- 
tency, or canon of analogy, is it, that a similar interpretation 
is denied to the interwoven portions of the same passages, 
which apply to the king? 

The world is asleep, immersed in the perishing things of 
this present passing life. The Church is meditating the con- 
version of the world, by means which never yet really and 
truly converted any one nation, or city; and which were never 
intended for more than the taking of a people out of 'the world.* 
The time is short. The danger is urgent. The Lord is at 
hand! 

O most gracious and merciful God! let thy effectual bless- 
ing accompany every warning sounded by the watch-men: ac- 
complish, accomplish the number of thine elect, and hasten 
thy kingdom! Amen. 

St. Jude's, February, 1835. 

* Acts xv. 14 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



It is remarked by Mr. Coleridge,* that, "in arguing with 
infidels, or with the weak in faith, it is a part of religious pru- 
dence, no less than of religious morality, to avoid whatever 
looks like an evasion. To retain the literal sense, whenever 
the harmony of Scripture permits, and reason does not forbid, 
is ever the honester, and nine times in ten the more rational 
and pregnant interpretation. The contrary plan is an easy and 
approved way of getting rid of a difficulty; but, nine times in 
ten, a bad way of solving it. But, alas! there have been too 
many commentators, who are content not to understand a text 
themselves, if only they can make the reader believe that they 
do.'* It may perhaps be added, with truth, concerning other 
commentators, that they are content to continue ignorant of the 
true meaning themselves, if only they make the reader content 
to continue ignorant also. 

The effect of this has been a practical violation of the com- 
mandment which says, "Thou shalt not diminish ought from 
the word which I command you."t The Bible which such 
persons attend to, is much smaller than the Bible which God 
has given us; and a strange attempt to justify this mutilation of 
revealed things, is grounded upon the text, that, u secret things 
belong unto God." 

There is no portion of the Scripture to which these observa- 
tions more forcibly apply, than to unfulfilled prophecy. I re- 
joice to furnish my readers with an answer to them, in the 
words of Joseph Milner.* "It is not for us to say, such and 
such parts of (Scripture) are unsuitable and useless, and would 
be better kept in silence. This is to affront the Holy Ghost. 
There are parts on which we cannot say much, because we 
know but little; and we may be easily wronged in strained in- 
terpretations, and entering into curious niceties of interpreta- 
tion, for which we have no warrant. But those who say this, 
are often not so sensible of the wrongness of their own views 
in another respect — in their forbidding us to treat of such sub- 
jects at all. Why were they written, if they were not to be 

* Aids to reflection, pp. 82—83. t Deut. iv. 2: Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

t Sermon on the Millennium. 
15* 



x [[ PREFACE. 

read and expounded? I have no notion of being restrained 
from studying and preaching from any part of Scripture. It 
is the inheritance which the God of Grace hath given to his 
Church, and happy were it for us to make a serious use of it! 
Under the teaching of the Spirit of God, with humility, discre- 
tion, and prayer, it is the very comfort of life; and those who 
live by the faith of the Son of God, will find it their interest to 
attend to every part of Scripture; and the neglect and discour- 
agement of Scripture study, is one of the worst symptoms of 
profaneness that we have among us." 

On the subject of unfulfilled Prophecy, our exclusive appeal 
must manifestly be to the Word of God ; and it is equally mani- 
fest, that without pains- taking and prayerful study of that 
word, we must ever continue incompetent judges of any prof- 
fered interpretation. One thing, however, seems plain; and, 
as a general observation, it will commend itself to those who 
have not yet given attention to particulars. It will scarcely be 
denied, that the Bible describes our Lord Jesus Christ as having 
come to this earth,* as having left this earth,t as surely to come 
again in like manner as he went away,$ and SO CON- 
CLUDES, without any mention of his leaving the earth again. 
The Bible closes, leaving the Lord upon the earth! What- 
ever, therefore, is written or spoken, concerning his, or our, 
final departure from the earth, is purely gratuitous, in addition 
to the Bible. 

In the Sermons contained in this little volume, nothing has 
been attempted in the way of elucidation of those more minute 
difficulties, or "curious niceties," which still perplex the stu- 
dents of prophecy. An outline of the subject only, plain and 
practical, is presented to the reader; and that, only so far as the 
preacher felt honestly convinced of having, and producing, 
Scriptural authority for what he advanced. 

It is with unfeigned thankfulness he has (in this preface to a 
second edition) to record the fact, that many Christian Bre- 
thren, in various parts of the kingdom, have conveyed to him 
their affectionate acknowledgments of instruction and edifica- 
tion derived from the perusal of this work. 

With sincere and earnest prayer that such instruction and 
edification may be multiplied abundantly: and in humble con- 
fidence that he who has graciously revealed himself as the 
Hearer and Answerer of prayer, will answer this to his own 
glory, in the increased preparation of many of his people for 
his appearing and his kingdom; the Author again commits the 
following pages to the press. 

St. Jude's, August, 1835. 

* John i. 14. t Mark xvi. 19. t Acts i. 11. Rev. xxii. 20. 



INTRODUCTION.* 



The most prominent feature in the volume of unfulfilled 
prophecy, is the glorious Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. It 
is that great act which at once terminates the present and com- 
mences the next succeeding dispensation of Jehovah's dealings 
with this our world. As such, the views entertained concern- 
ing it, must be of the first importance. This would have been 
so, though there had never existed any difference of opinion 
upon the subject; but now, in addition to its intrinsic impor- 
tance, considered absolutely, the coming of the Lord in glory 
has acquired a relative interest, maintained and magnified by 
the discordant opinions and statements, which are daily reiterat- 
ed in all the churches. Those opinions are so diametrically 
opposed, not merely in exaggerated expressions on either side, 
but in the very substance of the subject, that either the one 
party is deluded by the most visionary enthusiasm, or the other 
is sunk into a deceitful infidelity. Truly, the matter is no light 
matter: there is either Antichristian imagination at work on the 
one side, perverting the Scriptures; or there is Antichristian 
scepticism at work on the other side, explaining away the 
Scriptures. 

Here is a man who believes that our Lord Jesus Christ will 
return to this earth in person before the Millennium, while yet 
the inhabitants of the world, generally, are in their present 
condition and character similar to the state of things in the 
days of Noah, when the flood came. Connected with this, he 
believes that Divine vengeance, for abused privileges, will be 
poured out suddenly upon Christendom; that the Jewish nation 
will be restored to the land of their forefathers, the heathen 
nations blessed with the universal knowledge of the Lord, the 
earth renewed, and a glorious kingdom established therein, the 
metropolis of which will be the city of Jerusalem, and the 
King of which will be the Son of Mary, and the Son of David, 

* This Paper was sent some time ago to a Periodical of limited circulation. 
It is published for the first time, as an appropriate Introduction to the following 
Sermons, a Fourth Edition of which is now called for. 
St. Jude's, Dec. 1839. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

with the accomplished aggregate of his elect, risen, like him, 
and reigning with him. 

There is a man who believes that our Lord will not return in 
person to the earth till after the Millennium, and within about 
four-and-twenty hours of the final conflagration; when the earth 
shall be annihilated, or if not annihilated, he knows not what 
is to become of it; but he commonly interprets the Scripture, 
which says that "the earth shall be burned up as a a scroll," 
to signify its annihilation. Connected with this, he believes 
that immediately upon our Lord's coming, all men shall stand 
in the judgment, — the quick, and all the dead from the begin- 
ning of the world; that the unbelieving shall be cast, soul and 
body, into hell; and the faithful taken, soul and body, to heaven, 
without any distinction between Jew and Gentile, between 
Christendom and heathen lands; except, that Christendom will 
be judged by the Scriptures, and the heathen by the light of 
conscience and the law of nature: and that, consequently, the 
ideas of a personal reign of Christ upon this earth, a restored 
Jewish nation, and a first resurrection, are nothing better than 
Rabbinical fancies, long since exploded from the creed of ra- 
tional Christians. 

Now, it is obvious, that if the first man be right, the second 
man is an infidel! God hath spoken many things which he 
does not believe. If the second man be right, the first is a 
visionary; inventing a revelation for himself, and calling it 
God's word. 

The man who shall endeavour to throw scriptural light upon 
the subject of our Lord's glorious Advent; not by unproved 
assertions, however confident, but by detailed exposition and 
fair deduction ; accompanied, not by contemptuous vituperation ; 
but by affectionate persuasion — that man will confer a signal 
benefit upon the Church of Christ. I rejoice to find that so 
many men of God are now engaged in this long-neglected field ; 
and as my contribution to their labours, I offer the following 
observations on our Lord's prophetic discourse, as recorded at 
large in the 24th chapter of St. Matthew, compared with the 
13th chapter of St. Mark, and the 21st chapter of St. Luke. 

Our Lord — by riding into Jerusalem upon an ass's colt, 
according to the prophecy of Zechariah; by stirring up the lit- 
tle children to sing Hosannahs to him, from the 118th Psalm 
(a Psalm always sung at the Feast of Tabernacles, the period 
at which the Jews expected the Messiah to appear;*) and by 

* See Zech. xiv. 16 — 21, where the worship of the King the Lord of Hosts at 
Jerusalem, is connected with the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles; and 
compare Matt. xvii. 4, where Peter, on seeing the Lord Jesus in his glory, 
accompanied by Moses and Elias, immediately suggests the preparation of 
tabernacles. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

quoting in connection with it from the 8th Psalm, which con- 
tains a prediction of Christ's universal dominion over the earth 
(Matt. xxi. 1 — 16; Zech. ix. 9; Psa. viii. ; Heb. ii. 6—9) — had 
given the Jews every opportunity, consistent with their free 
agency, of acknowledging him as the Messiah. A combina- 
tion of remarkable circumstances from their own Scriptures, 
grouped together by the gracious management of our Lord, 
was pressed upon their attention: only compulsion was with- 
held. They were still obstinately prejudiced against him. 
He then, in parable, predicted their overthrow, and the transfer 
of the vineyard to other husbandmen. (Matt. xxi. 33 — 45.) 
They were enraged (ver. 46.) But he repeated the warning 
in the parable of the Marriage Supper (Matt. xxii. 1 — 14); 
silenced successively the cavils of the Herodians (16 — 22), the 
Sadducees (23 — 33), and the Pharisees (34 — 46); convincing 
the latter of their ignorance, by shewing that they could not 
tell in what sense Messiah was to be the Son of David, being 
called in the Psalms, David's Lord. He then denounced fear- 
ful woes against them, as hypocrites (xxiii. 1 — 36); wept over 
the city, as now devoted to destruction (37 — 39); and departed 
out of it to the Mount of Olives (xxiv. 1.) One of his disci- 
ples commented upon the beauty of the temple, which was in 
view, saying, Master, see what manner of stones, and what build- 
ings are here. Jesus declared its approaching ruin: Seest thou 
these great buildings? there shall not be lejt one stone upon another, 
that shall not be thrown down. Then four of his disciples, deeply 
impressed as it would appear by this alarming declaration, 
asked him privately, When shall these things be? and what shall be 
the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? (Mark xiii. — I. 
4.;) or, as it is in St. Matthew's narrative, Tell us when shall 
these things be; and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of 
the end of the age {a-w^xua, tow auwos). The prophecy now to be 
considered is given in answer to these questions: first, "When 
shall these things be, which you have predicted concerning 
Jerusalem and her stately temple?" and, secondly, "What 
shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the winding up of the 
dispensation?" 

Upon these questions, I offer in the first place these general 
remarks: — 

The disciples had been present when Jesus inquired of them, 
Whom say ye that I am? They had heard Peter's famous 
reply, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and 
the unqualified approbation which that reply met with. Con- 
sequently they were perfectly aware, that the person to whom 
they were speaking was the Messiah. He was there present 
among them, yet they ask for a sign of his coming. It is clear, 



16 



INTRODUCTION. 



therefore, that they expected some other coming, different from 
that which had already taken place, and which of course re- 
quired no sign. That other coming, for which they looked, 
was a coming of the very same Person to whom they spake: 
this is evident from their expression (t»? m rrct^ov<nctc). It is re- 
markable, that three of the four who asked him these questions, 
had been eye-witnesses of his glorious appearing on Mount 
Tabor, and had been enjoined to keep secret what they had 
seen, until after he was risen from the dead. They obviously 
expected that Jesus would come again as they had seen him in 
the transfiguration; and they ask for instruction as to the 
period of his coming, and the sign which should precede it, by 
which they should take warning. In proceeding to prophec}?" 
the intermediate events, and to give the signs, he of course im- 
plies that they were right in the expectation of the thing to be 
signified. 

Again: the disciples were as yet ignorant of the purpose of 
God toward the Gentiles during the dispersion of Judah: the 
natural consequence of which was, that they expected the glo- 
rious coming of Messiah in his kingdom over Israel, and 
through Israel over all the earth, immediately upon the break- 
ing up of the then existing Jewish establishments; which es- 
tablishments were so interwoven in all their parts with the 
temple, that to predict the destruction of the temple was one 
and the same thing with predicting the termination of the 
whole system. They evidently, therefore, supposed that they 
were propounding an inquiry concerning events which were 
to be synchronical, [that is, would occur at the same time.] To 
predict the whole truth, without at the same time plainly an- 
nouncing the Gentile dispensation (which the disciples were 
not then able to bear, and to which they afterwards gave a re- 
luctant consent,) was a difficulty which Christ had to meet in 
wording his reply, and which in some degree accounts for the 
difficulty we experience in expounding that reply. 

1. Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man 
deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, 
and shall deceive many, (Matt. xxiv. 4, 5.) 'Your present 
danger lies in the expectation that the kingdom is immediately 
to be restored to Israel. In consequence of such an expecta- 
tion, you are liable, and even likely, to be deceived by some 
impostor, pretending that he is Christ the King. Take heed, 
therefore/ &o. This part of the prophecy was accomplished 
in the few years which immediately followed our Lord's as- 
cension: "Theudas arose, boasting himself to be somebody: 
after him s Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew 
away much people after him." Against such delusions the 



INTRODUCTION. yf 

Lord's disciples had their appropriate warning in the words 
just quoted. 

And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of rears: see that ye be 
not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not 
yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against 
kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earth" 
quakes in divers places. (Matt. xxiv. 6, 7.) 

The wars primarily predicted in this passage were the wars 
of Cestius and Vespasian, Nero's generals, whose disastrous 
progress is so minutely detailed by Josephus. In the midst of 
the calamities which then befel the Jews, and threatened even 
Jerusalem itself, the Lord's disciples had this prophetic exhor- 
tation on record, See that ye be not troubled, accompanied by an 
assurance that the end of the temple and city would not be just 
then. This predicted respite was remarkably fulfilled. Ves- 
pasian was in a full career of success against the Jews when 
Nero died. This event, — followed as it was by the flagrant 
enormities of Galba, Otho, and Vitelius, — was felt throughout 
the empire: it arrested Vespasian's progress, and led eventually 
to his being proclaimed emperor and returning to Italy, leaving 
the Jewish war unfinished. The end was "not yet;" the pre- 
dicted destruction of the temple was reserved for Titus. In 
this passage, however, the language of the prophecy swells into 
an application to greater things than these;* and, the winding 
up of the Jewish dispensation being typical of the winding up 
of this more enlarged dispensation under which we live, the 
language is transferable from one to the other, and predicts 
political commotions towards the close of this dispensation, to 
be succeeded by a pause of peace previous to the end. 

If, as many suppose, the French Revolution, with its accom- 
panying symbolical plagues and earthquakes, be the commotions 
here predicted; then the pause in which we now breathe, since 
the general peace, is marked by the end is not yet. That is, the 
Jewish war under Vespasian was to that expiring dispensation 
of God's dealing with Judaea, what the French Revolution has 
been to this expiring dispensation of God's dealing with Chris- 
tendom; the pause of peace which followed, was to that dispen- 
sation what the present interval is to this; and the conclusive 
war under Titus was to that, what the coming of the Son of 
Man will be to this. If this be so, let us remember, to our un- 
speakable comfort, that between the departure of Vespasian and 
the coming of Titus, the elect Jews were drawn out of the city, 
and gathered to a place of safety. 

The next verse of the prophecy implies that the sorrow, 

* See note, page 21, 



}§ INTRODUCTION. 

which should begin with the close of the Jewish dispensation, 
would not end there, but would indeed prove only the begin- 
ning of sorrows: All these are the beginning of sorrows (ver. 8). 

Thus far the parallel passages in the three Evangelists agree: 
compare Mark xiii. 5 — 8, and Luke xxi. 8 — 11. 

But observe the remarkable difference in the next passage. 
St. Matthew says, "T 'hen shall they deliver you to be afflicted, and 
shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's 
sake: implying that the predicted sufferings of Christ's disciples 
would be subsequent to those events which he had just cha- 
racterized as the beginning of sorrows. St. Mark says, But 
take heed to yourselves, for they shall deliver you, &c, without say- 
ing anything as to the period. But St. Luke says, Before 
all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, 
&e. ; distinctly declaring that the persecutions of the disciples 
would precede the beginning of the great tribulation. Now I 
do not for a moment set this saying of our Lord by St. Luke 
against that other saying of his by St. Matthew; neither have I 
recourse to any verbal criticism to make them harmonize. I 
believe they were both uttered : that in the one, the disciples 
personally had the needful warning for their own time; and in 
the other, the warning of similar affliction is extended to all 
faithful disciples, during the continuance of those sorrows of 
which the Jewish dispersion was to be the beginning. What, 
in this instance, was accomplished by two distinct passages, 
appears to me to be done in other instances, by so ordering the 
language as to make the same words predict two events, similar 
in their nature, but differing in their chronology. This I ap- 
prehend to be the structure of the prophecy in many succeed- 
ing clauses; beginning with the disciples themselves under that 
dispensation, and swelling into greater things, applicable to all 
true disciples to the end of this dispensation. 

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, 
and shall hate one another; and, because iniquity shall abound, the 
love of many shall wax cold. These words presuppose not 
apostles and faithful disciples only, but also false professors; 
many of whom would be offended because of the reproach of 
Christ's name, and would betray their brethren: so that the 
deadening effects of their abounding iniquity would paralyze 
the church itself under a hateful lukewarmness. In the midst 
of this there would be many false teachers, who would deceive 
many or make many to wander (ffxuno-ova-i noxxovs). These words 
found a fulfilment in the state of things in Jerusalem previous 
to its destruction: and it would be difficult to find any words 
which contain a more accurate and comprehensive description 
of the state of things in Christendom at this day. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

The next verse supplies our warning at this eventful moment, 
and during whatever troubles may arise to put our constancy 
to the trial: He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all 
the world, for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end 
be. These words also found a fulfilment in the state of things 
previous to the destruction of Jerusalem. The Gospel was 
preached in all the empire (sv ox» <™ oDcov/um), for a witness to all 
the nations composing the body of the fourth beast (»■*« tg« «0y»-/). 
Then came "the end" of the temple of Jerusalem, and all the 
institutions of that dispensation. The words predict also what 
is now going forward, to the blind admiration of multitudes, 
who little think of the sudden and overwhelming end of this 
dispensation, which is to follow in the train of Bible and Mis- 
sionary testimonies. The parallels to these verses are Mark 
xiii. 9 — 13, and Luke xxi. 12 — 19. 

The next passage in St. Matthew is, When ye, therefore, shall 
see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 
stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand:) then let 
them which be in Judceafee unto the mountains, &c. In St. Mark 
it is the same: but in St. Luke it is, When ye shall see Jerusalem 
compassed with ojrmies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh; 
then let them which are in Judma fee to the mountains. This 
sufficiently identifies the abomination of desolation spoken of 
by Daniel the prophet with the armies of Pagan Rome bring- 
ing destruction upon Jerusalem. 

Here, then, the prophecy gives warning to such disciples as 
should be in Jerusalem at the time, not to hope for her deliver- 
ance, for fall she must: their safety, therefore, could only be in 
flying out of her. We have seen how graciously an opportu- 
nity was afforded them of availing themselves of this warning. 
Jerusalem should not only fall, but be trodden down for a con- 
siderable time, even during the whole of the timesof the Gentiles. 

Thus it follows, there shall be great distress in the land, and 
wrath upon this people: and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, 
and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall 
be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Ge?itiles be 
fulfilled. Those are the "times of vengeance, that all things 
which are written may be fulfilled." In them shall be begun 
the great tribulation, which, beginning in those days of the dis- 
persion of the Jews, shall prove in the end the greatest tribula- 
tion that ever has been, or shall be. It shall affect the Jews as 
a nation, the elect Church from among the Gentiles as an ag- 
gregate, and all the children of God as individuals; and it shall 
endure throughout the whole of the times of the Gentiles. In 
the course of it, fresh delusions and temptations shall arise; 
16 



2Q INTRODUCTION. 

some of them with such plausible pretensions to a divine origin 
as to deceive all but the elect, and, if it were possible, even 
them also. The false Christs and false Prophets, the signs and 
wonders, predicted to mark this period of tribulation, direct 
our attention to the great apostasy of Christendom ; under which 
the Jews as a people, and the elect as a church, have been bit- 
terly oppressed: and concerning which the Apostle writes, that 
it would come "after the working of Satan with all power, and 
signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of un- 
righteousness in them that perish — speaking lies in hypocrisy, 
forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." 
Among the attempts at delusion to be practised in the course, 
and it would seem peculiarly towards the close (ver. 22,) of 
that period, false announcements of the Lord being come already 
would occupy a prominent place. Against these the elect were 
warned; and distinctly told that the coming of their Lord 
would be an event not to be mistaken. Matt. xxiv. 26 — 28. 
Upon these verses I adopt and quote the observations of Bishop 
Horsley :* "Give no credit, says our Lord, to any reports that 
may be spread that the Messiah is come, that he is in this place 
or in that: my coming will be attended with circumstances 
which will make it public at once to all the world; and there 
will be no need that one man should carry the tidings to 
another. This sudden and universal notoriety that there will 
be of our Saviour's last glorious advent, is signified by the 
image of the lightning, which in the same instant flashes upon 
the eyes of spectators in remote and opposite stations. And 
this is all that this comparison seems intended, or indeed fitted, 
to express. It has been imagined that it denotes the particular 
route of the Roman armies, which entered Judaea on the eastern 
side, and extended their conquests westward. But had this 
been intended, the image should rather have been taken from 
something which hath its natural and necessary course in that 
direction. The lightning may break out indifferently in any 
quarter of the sky; and east and west seem to be mentioned 
only as extremes and opposites. And, accordingly, in the 
parallel passage of St. Luke's Gospel we read neither of east 
nor west, but indefinitely of opposite parts of the heavens: 
<For as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under 
the heaven, shineth into the other part under heaven, so shall 
also the Son of Man be in his day.' The expression, his day, 
is remarkable. The original might be more exactly rendered 
his own day; intimating, as I conceive, that the day, i. e. the 
time of the Son of Man, is to be exclusively his own; quite 

* Sermon ii. on St. Matt. xxiv. 3. 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

another from the day of those deceivers whom he had men- 
tioned, and therefore quite another from the day of the Jewish 
war." — And again: "It is probable that the eagle and the car- 
cass was a proverbial image among the people of the East, ex- 
pressing things inseparably connected by natural affinities and 
sympathies. 'Her young ones suck up blood,' says Job, speak- 
ing of the eagle; 'and where the slain is, there is she.' The 
disciples ask, Where, in what countries, are these calamities to 
happen, and these miraculous deliverances to be wrought? 
(Luke xvii. 37.) Our Divine Instructor held it unfit to give 
further light upon the subject. He frames a reply, as was his 
custom when pressed with unseasonable questions, which, at 
the same time that it evades the particular inquiry, might more 
edify the disciples than the most explicit resolution of the 
question proposed. 'Wheresoever the carcass is, thither will the 
eagles be gathered together.' Wheresoever sinners shall dwell, 
there shall my vengeance overtake them, and there will I in- 
terpose to protect my faithful servants. Nothing, therefore, 
in the similitude of the lightning, or the image of the eagles 
gathered round the carcass, limits the phrase of 'our Lord's 
coming 7 in the 27th verse of this 24th chapter of St. Matthew, 
to the figurative sense of his coming to destroy Jerusalem. His 
coming is announced again in the 30th verse, and in subse- 
quent parts of these same prophecies; where it is of great im- 
portance to rescue the phrase from the refinements of modern 
expositors, and to clear some considerable difficulties, which, it 
must be confessed, attend the literal interpretation." — Here, 
therefore, as in other clauses, the prophecy begins with an ap- 
propriate warning to the Lord's disciples at the winding-up of 
the Jewish dispensation: "If they shall say unto you, Behold, 
he is in the desert, go not forth: Behold, he is in the secret 
chambers, believe it not; and then swells into a largeness of 
expression, which embraces, and strikingly predicts the wind- 
ing-up of this dispensation.* 

* I am aware that this is the part of our statement which is charged with 
unsoundness; and which being, as is alleged, mere arbitrary ingenuity, throws 
discredit upon all the rest. But here, as elsewhere, it is easier to deny than to 
disprove. "Scripture prophecy," says Mr. Davison, "is so framed in some of 
its predictions as to bear a sense directed to two objects; of which structure the 
predictions concerning the kingdom of David furnish a conspicuous example; 
and I should say, an unquestionable one, if the whole principle of that kind of 
interpretation had not been by some disputed and denied. But the principle 
has met with this ill-acceptance, for no better reason, it should seem, than 
because it has been injudiciously applied in cases where it had no proper place; 
or has been suspected, if not mistaken, in its constituent character, as to what 
it really is. The double sense of prophecy, however, is of all things the most 
remote from fraud or equivocation, and has its ground of reason perfectly clear. 
For what is if? Not the convenient latitude of two unconnected senses, wide 
of each other, and giving room to fallacious ambiguity; but the combination of 



22 



INTRODUCTION. 



The parallels to this clause are Mark xiii. 14 — 23, and Luke 
xxi. 20—24. 

The next passage in St. Matthew is, Immediately after the 
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon 
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and 
the pozvers of heaven shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign 
of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds 
of heaven, with power and great glory. And he shall send his 
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather to- 
gether his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to 
another. The period for the commencement of these great and 
final signs is here distinctly marked, in reference to what has 
gone before, immediately after the tribulation. In St. Mark it is, 
In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, Src. 
In St. Luke it is, There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon, 
fyc, without any mark of the period, as in the other two. The 
reason is obvious. The period is sufficiently marked in the 
preceding words in St. Luke: "Jerusalem shall be trodden 
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled: 
and there shall be signs in the sun." And this confirms the 
identity of the two periods, that tribulation, and the times of the 
Gentiles. When the tribulation of those long days from Jeru- 
salem's overthrow shall be ended, and the time shall have 
arrived when Jerusalem is to be restored, and made a praise in 
the earth, then the sun shall be darkened, &c. What precise 

two related, analogous, and harmonizing, though disparate, subjects, each clear 
and definite in itself; implying a two-fold truth in the prescience, and creating 
an aggravated difficulty, and thereby an accumulated proof in the completion. 
So that the double sense of prophecy, in its true idea, is a check upon the pre- 
tences of vague and unappropriated prediction, rather than a door to admit 
them." — So much for the principle generally: and touching its application to 
this particular prophecy, if it shall be proved (as I think it is in this paper) that 
the coming of the Son of Man here predicted, cannot possibly be his providen- 
tial visitation at the destruction of Jerusalem, so that one branch of this pro- 
phecy must be admitted to reach forward to the close of the Gentile dispensa- 
tion; then it remains to be proved that it is inconclusive to assert a similarly 
extended application of the whole prophecy. One of the examples selected by 
Mr. Davison, in illustration of the principle above stated, is the prophecy now 
before us. He says, "The prophecy of the judicial destruction of Jerusalem, 
with the dissolution of the Jewish economy, symbolizes with that which relates 
to the final judgment, which will shut up the whole temporal economy of God, 
at the end of the world. In the New Testament they are united. In this, as 
in other authentic instances of a double sense, particulars are found belonging 
exclusively to the one subject or the other: these particulars create a discrimi- 
nation, but do not violate the general harmony of the things described: the chief 
propositions and images, and the substance of the prediction, are common to 
the two, and they are common by the nature of the subjects, which correspond 
so far in their main attributes as to give a plain ground of fitness and agree- 
ment, to the prophecies which join them together in one comprehensive scheme 
of delineation." — I repeat, it is easier to deny than to disprove the opinion 
maintained in these very sensible observations. 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

events are predicted in these great words I do not dare to say; 
whether political and ecclesiastical commotions throughout the 
empire, or real miraculous appearances in the heavenly bodies, 
or both: the mode of prediction, as we find it in St. Luke, fa- 
vours the supposition of the former. But whatever they are, 
they shall usher in the great climax of all, the glorious appear- 
ing of the Son of Man. I do not believe that any of the late 
or present commotions in Europe have fulfilled the signs here 
predicted, because I cannot subscribe to that view of the pro- 
phetic chronology which supposes the times of the Gentiles to 
have already expired. For this I have many reasons: it will 
be sufficient at present to assign this one: Jerusalem is still 
trodden under foot of the Gentiles; whereas, from the terms of 
the prophecy before us, it appears undeniable that the restora- 
tion of the Jews, and the re-establishment of the holy city, 
either in its actual consummation, or at the least in such obvious 
progress as cannot be gainsayed, must be contemporaneous with 
the termination of the times of the Gentiles, which times, we 
have seen, are identical with the duration of the great tribula- 
tion. I thank God, the interests of Jerusalem are attracting 
increased and increasing attention, and the last great step of 
this prophecy may be at the door. 

Agreeing most cordially with the observation of the learned 
prelate above quoted, that it is of great importance to rescue 
the phrase of the Lord's coming, in this 30th verse, from the 
refinements of modern expositors, I shall here compare the 
passage with a parallel prediction from the first chapter of the 
Apocalypse. "Behold," saith the Spirit, by the beloved dis- 
ciple, "He cometh." — He, the faithful Witness, the First-Be- 
gotten of the dead, the Prince o.f the kings of the earth; He 
who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 
and hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father 
— He cometh with clouds: and every eye shall see him, and they 
also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail 
because of him. Even so, amen! Here, as in the passage be- 
fore us, we have the Lord Jesus coming in the clouds of 
heaven, every eye seeing him and the kindreds (pj\tti in both 
texts) of the earth mourning (^ovrui, in both texts) because of 
him. And we have one additional circumstance predicted: 
among the spectators of the glorious scene, they who pierced 
the Son of Man are specified as a distinct group. 

Now what coming of the Lord is this? Not his providen- 
tial visitation at the destruction of Jerusalem; for then, instead 
of coming in the clouds of heaven, he did not come at all, but 
by his Spirit he stirred up the hearts of the Roman Emperors 
to come and bring their armies to destroy Jerusalem; and in- 
16* 



24 



INTRODUCTION. 



stead of every eye seeing him at that time, no eye saw him, 
for he remained in the invisible world: and instead of the 
Jewish nation seeing and knowing him as the person whom 
they had pierced, they were still rejecting him, and for reject- 
ing him were destroyed: and instead of all the nations of the 
earth wailing because of him, they have all been rejoicing ever 
since, and making merry, regardless of him. And further, as 
Horsley argues from the narrative in St. Matthew, "It is evi- 
dent that the coming intended in these similitudes, [the light- 
ning, and the eagle and carcass,] is that coming, of the time 
and hour of which none knows, said our Lord, 'not even the 
Son, but the Father.' But since the epoch of the destruction 
of Jerusalem was known to the Messiah by the prophetic Spirit 
— the coming, of which the time was not known to the Messiah 
by the prophetic Spirit, could be no other than the last personal 
advent." To these conclusive arguments we may add, that, 
according to the best and most careful investigation, it appears 
that Jerusalem had been already destroyed previous to the giving 
of the Revelations to John, in Patmos, and was consequently 
a matter of history in the church, and not of prophecy. 

What coming, then, of the Lord is this? Not his spiritual 
coming, as it is called, to his church: because, in what is 
meant by that phrase, instead of coming in the clouds of 
heaven in manifested manhood, as he went away, he reveals 
himself by the Spirit in the hearts of his elect, as present with 
them in all places at the same time; consequently, not in his 
manhood, which can be only in one place at a time; — and in- 
stead of every eye seeing him, no eye sees him: the elect walk 
by faith, not by sight; — and instead of the Jewish nation, who 
pierced him, seeing him, they have rejected, and do reject him 
to this day; — and instead of all the nations of the earth wailing 
because of him, they still rejoice and make merry, regardless of 
him, and scoff with disdain at the pretensions of his people to 
any inward revelation of his presence by the Spirit. It is 
manifest that similar arguments would prove that the coming 
of the Lord cannot mean the death of the individual man, as 
has been absurdly maintained. 

What coming, then, of the Lord is this? Clearly his per- 
sonal coming in visible manhood, when that shall be brought 
to pass which was spoken by the angels to the Apostles, on the 
day of the ascension; when Jesus, being parted from them on ' 
the Mount of Olives, and received into a cloud out of their 
sight, two men stood by them in white apparel, and said, "Ye 
men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This 
same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall SO 
come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. 

"Behold, he cometh with clouds!" This exclamation of 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

the Apostle is grounded upon the last of those sublime visions 
which had been presented to him, and with the glory of which 
he was so filled when he came to testify the truth to the 
churches, that he is interrupted by, as it were, involuntary 
bursts of feeling. In his benediction, he had called Jesus 
Christ "the Faithful Witness," "the First-Begotten of the 
dead," and "the Prince of the kings of the earth," with evi- 
dent allusion to the three-fold revelation of the Lord which he 
had received — the great Bishop of the church, the Lamb as it 
had been slain appearing in heaven, and the King of kings re- 
turning to the earth. Then out of the abundance of his in- 
spired heart bursts forth the doxology, "Unto Him that loved us, 
and washed us from our sins in his own blood" &c. But this 
was not enough to satisfy his ardent, holy enthusiasm. A 
chart had been laid before him, marking the course of the 
voyage by which God had fore-ordained to carry on the world 
and the church through this dispensation. Both are seen sail- 
ing together; the one exulting in her pride; the other meek 
and lowly: the one glittering in all splendour of costly orna- 
ment: the other in sackcloth: the one changing its aspects 
under successive commanders, and increasing, as it proceeds, 
in luxury and pride; the other always the same, under one 
Captain, neither imitating nor envying the pageantry of its 
companion: the one ringing with the sounds of revellings and 
banquetings and blasphemies; the other breathing into every 
gale the tender accents of earnest, humble prayer. They sail 
on together: the one pleased with the voyage, and wishing it 
to last for ever; the other sore buffeted and weary, almost to 
death, longing for the haven. The whole voyage being traced 
before the Apostle's eye, the port at last appeared, and there, 
behold! the Master of both vessels rushes forth with flaming 
fire! Every eye beholds him. The crew of the little tem- 
pest-tossed bark shout for joy, saying, 'This is our Friend: 
we have longed for him, we have waited for him: now he is 
come, and he will save us: Hallelujah!' Then shall doleful 
cries be heard from on board the great gay vessel; for everlast- 
ing destruction shall be her portion, and that of all who belong 
to her. 

This last scene had made an impression upon the Apostle's 
heart, which he was eager to communicate, and the words we 
have been considering, contain the enraptured utterance of that 
eagerness: Behold, he cometh with clouds! &c. They have no 
other connection in the context. Where, where is the man 
who can contemplate the truths revealed to the Apostle, with- 
out catching a spark of the Apostolic fire here kindled? In all 
light there is heat. The man who can proceed in a cold in- 
vestigation of these revealed glories of God in Christ Jesus, 



25 INTRODUCTION. 

without finding himself once and again hurried away into a 
warmth of devotional enthusiasm, which bids defiance to all 
rules of logic, has more reason to be ashamed of the deadness 
of his heart, than to pride himself upon the soundness of his 
understanding. This exuberance of feeling, however, arising 
from the overflowing fulness of the transporting subject, is a 
very different thing from that vapid excitement which is begun, 
continued, and ended in emptiness. 

It is further to be remarked, that neither in the 24th chapter 
of St. Matthew, nor in the first of the Apocalypse, is there any 
mention made of the resurrection of the body. Elsewhere, 
indeed, the resurrection of those that are Christ's at the same 
period is predicted as certainly to take place; but in the pass- 
ages now under consideration, the spectators of the advent 
appear to refer exclusively to the living in that day. The cir- 
cumstance of the Jews who pierced him being specified, con- 
tains no objection to this opinion; for it is the nation that is 
spoken of, as such: to the Jews, as a nation, the promises of 
restoration and prosperity are made: not to the generation who 
were alive in the day when the prophecy was uttered, whether 
by Moses or Isaiah, or Ezekiel or John; but to the nation, as 
a continuous aggregate; and those prophecies shall be literally 
fulfilled in that generation of the nation, which shall be alive 
upon the earth in the day when the Lord doeth these things. 
Upon that nation (generation after generation) has been visited 
the vengeance of His blood whom they pierced. It is true of 
the present generation of Jews, that they are suffering for, or 
because of, Him whom they pierced; and the generation of 
them who shall be alive when he returns, shall see Him whom 
they have pierced. They shall recognise Him, in the glory 
of Jehovah, as that same Jesus, whom they crucified, and whom 
they have for so many hundred years spurned and blasphemed; 
and perceiving that he returns their Friend, causing mercy 
to triumph over justice, they will be overwhelmed with 
mingled shame and remorse, and fear and gratitude, and faith 
and love. No event short of this can fulfil the w r ords of the 
Lord by the Prophet Zechariah: "In that day shall the Lord 
defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and he that is feeble 
among them at that day shall be as David: and the house of 
David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord, before them. 
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to de- 
stroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will- 
pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they 
shall look upon Me, whom they have pierced; and they shall 
mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be 
in bitterness for Him as one that is in bitterness for his first- 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jeru- 
salem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of 
Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart, 
and their wives apart. In that day there shall be a fountain 
opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem, for sin and for uncleanness." (Zech. xii. 8 — 14; xiii. 
1.) That no such favour was shewn to the Jews as that which 
is here promised, nor any such penitential mourning awaken- 
ed among them as that which is here described, at the time that 
the Messiah was pierced by them, is matter of notoriety. The 
facts of the case were precisely the reverse. Instead of Jeru- 
salem being defended, it was destroyed: instead of penitent 
bitterness of spirit amongst the inhabitants thereof, there was 
the most hardened obduracy. Yet the single clause of the 
prophecy which says, "They shall look on him whom they 
have pierced," is quoted, (John xix. 37.) as applicable at the 
moment of the crucifixion; — applicable, however, it is mani- 
fest, as identifying the person crucified with the person pre- 
dicted by Zechariah; but not as supplying the fulfilment of 
the whole strain of Zechariah's prophecy. That remains to 
be fulfilled in the day when the Crucified One shall re-appear 
upon the earth. 

With this important corroboration of our exposition, we re- 
turn to Matt. xxiv. Having concluded this prophecy, our 
Lord proceeds to instruct his disciples, by a parable, how they 
might be sure of the final accomplishment of all he had said 
(vers. 32 — 34.) "When you see the fig-tree bud, you hail it 
as a sign and pledge of the summer and harvest. So, also, 
when you shall see the destruction of the temple, the disper- 
sion of the Jewish nation, and the beginning of the great tribu- 
lation, you may hail all these things as a sign and pledge of 
the finishing of that tribulation, and the coming of the Son of 
man at the end of it." "All these things" in verse 3S, must be 
thus limited: for if they be understood to include more than 
the beginnings of the prophecy, there will be no force in the 
parable; for "all these things" would then include as signs, 
those very events of which they were to be the signs. "All 
these things" which the disciples were to see (ver. 34) and hail 
as signs, correspond, therefore, with the budding of the fig- 
tree, and mean the dispersion of the Jews and the beginning of 
the sorrows. 'Verily I say to you,' added our Lord, 'all these 
things shall be fulfilled — the fig-tree shall bud — before this 
generation passes away.' As if he had said, 'The whole pro- 
phecy, in all its periods, is aptly represented by the whole 
season of a fig-tree. While I speak, it is winter: the fig-tree 
is bare, the prophecy has no fulfilment. Before this genera- 



28 



INTRODUCTION. 



tion of men shall pass away, it will be spring: the fig-tree shall 
bud, the prophecy shall have a commenced fulfilment in the 
destruction of Jerusalem. This you, my disciples, shall see. 
From this you may argue surely, and expect confidently the 
summer and harvest. The fig-tree shall blossom and bear 
fruit: the prophecy shall make progress in fulfilment, the great 
tribulation shall run its course, and the Son of Man shall come. 
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass 
away.' 

We now proceed to the practical application of this pro- 
phecy, as pressed by our Lord, under the two heads of watch- 
fulness and diligence, to the end of the chapter, and enforced 
by two parables in the chapter following. 

"As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the 
Son of Man be: for as in the days that were before the flood 
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 
riage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and knew 
not, until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also 
the coming of the Son of Man be." They knew not! But had 
they not been told? Yes, verily: Noah preached to them of 
righteousness and judgment to come; he builded the ark also, 
and thereby gave them warning; by which, as it is written, 
he condemned the world. They had heard, therefore, that the 
flood was coming; and many, very many of them must have 
joined Noah in making visible preparation for it; yet our Lord 
says, "They knew not, till the flood came." This opens a truly 
deceitful mine of the human heart: and as it was then, so it is 
now. It is possible to hear of the coming King, the coming 
judgments, and the coming kingdom, and to be constrained to 
admit the justice of the statements, not seeing how the argu- 
ments advanced can be refuted — nay, not only so, but to take 
a liking for the subject, to find in it a comprehensiveness, a 
depth of intellectual exercise, an excitement of political appli- 
cation, which invests it with a very animating interest; and 
thereupon to become a zealous advocate for it, a champion in 
the controversy excited by it: and yet to be without part or 
lot in its blessedness; never really to embody it in your in- 
stinctive creed, so as to make it your own; and, after all, to 
have it truly said of you, in the sense now before us, that you 
knew it not till it came. Here, as in every other branch of it, 
salvation is by grace. The natural workings of the mind and 
heart of man, are easily mistaken for the energizings of the 
Holy Ghost. The study of prophecy may be as formal as the 
profession of orthodoxy; and the formal student, as well as the 
formal professor, may live and die at enmity against God, and 
be cast into the damnation of hell. 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

You know that the Lord is coming, and shall come; but 
you know not the time. " Watch, therefore: if the good-man 
of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, 
he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house 
to be broken up. Therefore, be ye also ready; for in such an 
hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." It is very 
evident that the disciples and first Christians lived under this 
lively impression, and were persuaded that the day of the 
Lord's coming was at hand. They turned from idols to serve 
the living God, and to wait for his Son from heaven. Their con- 
versation was in heaven, from whence they looked for the 
Lord Jesus Christ to come and change their bodies into the 
likeness of his risen body. The Apostles, instead of referring 
to the believer's death, and holding out the disembodied state 
as the object of the church's proximate hope, addressed the 
brethren on this wise: "Ye come behind us in no gift, waiting 
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." "The Lord is at hand. 
Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." 
"Stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth 
nigh." "Be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is 
to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. " 
"And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be 
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

And the church of the Thessalonians was so impressed by 
this and similar language, that the Apostle Paul was taught of 
the Holy Ghost to explain to them, that the great tribulation, 
spoken of by the Lord Jesus, must intervene: for that the Son 
of Man would not come until first the man of sin was revealed, 
arrogating to himself the incommunicable attributes of God. 
This is the subject of 2 Thess. ii. 1 — 8. But, to guard the 
faithful against the despondency in the first instance, and after- 
wards the unbelief likely to arise from this, a detailed descrip- 
tion of the progress of the great tribulation was revealed, as we 
have seen, to St. John, and by him communicated to all the 
churches.* 

JVow, then, that the man of sin has been revealed: now that 
the mystery of iniquity has been working, not in its secret 
spirit only (in which sense it is in the nature of every fallen 
man, and did begin to oppose the Gospel, even in the Apostles' 
days), but also in its open form, as the manifest usurper of the 
government of Melchisedek, wearing on the same head, in 
anti-christian combination, the crown and the mitre: now that 

* John omits in his Gospel, the prophecy on the Mount. If he wrote it after 
his return from Patmos to Ephesus, one reason for the omission may be, the 
more fall developement of the same events which he had already recorded in 
the book of Revelations — our Lord's prophecy being but the outline of which 
the Revelations contain the details. 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

the great tribulation has been running its course, and such 
signs as are predicted to mark the termination of it, are start- 
ing into more and more manifest existence in every kingdom 
of Europe: now, the impression which animated and support- 
ed the first disciples in all their troubles, but which afterwards 
died away in the church, should revive and reanimate us, and 
set us upon such a course of holy devoted activity and self- 
denial, as would require the very impression which caused it 
to support us under it. For, mark! let the prophetic numbers 
be calculated as they may, at the longest feasible calculation 
the time is now short; and the Lord Jesus has said distinctly, 
that the last days of the time shall be shortened, for the elect's 
sake — how much shortened he has not said. Therefore, if we 
could surely calculate the numbers of the times given by 
Daniel and John, and if we could successfully demonstrate that 
our calculation is correct to a day and an hour; yet, still, of 
the exact time of our Lord's coming no man could know: but 
one thing we know, the time covered by the prophetic num- 
bers shall not be lengthened. The impression made upon the 
disciples, therefore, is exactly the impression which should be 
made upon us. Combined with the certainty of the event, and 
the well-grounded conviction of its nearness, there remains un- 
certainty as to the time; and my mind has been much effected 
by observing how this, like every other branch of divine truth, 
works two ways. To those who are watching, the uncertainty, 
by keeping them watching, is a savour of life unto life: to 
those who are careless, the uncertainty, by leaving them in 
their carelessness, is a savour of death unto death. It was to 
deepen the impression of these points, that the parable of the 
Ten Virgins was spoken. It marks the state of affairs at the 
time of the end among those who had received warning. 
Then (mark the connection with the xxiv. chapter — then) 
shall the kingdom of heaven be likened, &c. All the ten had so 
far taken warning, and embraced the hope, that they seemed 
to be waiting for the expected Bridegroom. Had he arrived 
at that instant, all the ten would have entered into the mar- 
riage: but he tarried: his delay put their constancy to the test. 
It is endurance that proves principle. It is "to him that over- 
cometh," the promises are made. They sunk under the trial, 
five of them to rise no more. The day of the Lord's coming 
will prove, to many avowed expectants of it, a day of surprise, 
and a day of separation. This is the connection of the fortieth 
and forty-first verses with the thirty-ninth. There shall two 
be in one field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be 
taken, and the other left. Two virgins shall be waiting for the 



INTRODUCTION. ^1 

marriage; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two 
ministers shall be officiating in the church; the one shall be 
taken, and the other left. Two magistrates shall be sitting on 
the bench; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two 
farmers shall be bargaining in the market; the one shall be 
taken, and the other left — " Where, Lord? And Jesus answered, 
Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered to- 
gether." (Luke xvii. 37.) c 'Watch, therefore; for ye know 
neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh."* 
But is this all? And are we to stand on tiptoe, gazing, like 
the men of Galilee, for the opening of the cloud to reveal the 
Son of Man? And are we to be so engrossed on this watch- 
tower, as to neglect or despise all the surrounding duties of the 
present time? This leads to the next clause in our Lord's ap- 
plication of his discourse, and also to the next parable by which 
that clause is enforced: Who, then, is a faithful and wise ser- 
vant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to 

* It has been already proved, that the coming of the Lord here spoken of, 
can be no other than his last personal advent: and how, I ask, could such 
language as this be used, if the Millennium be antecedent to that advent'? 
Should it be replied, that after the Millennium, Satan is again to deceive the 
nations of the earth, and re-introduce a state of things similar to that in the 
days of Noah and Lot, and that, to that period the language before us applies; 
I observe, first, that this supposition implies that during some intervening 
period a different state of things shall have been introduced. In fact, it asserts 
that the Millennium shall intervene. I then compare it with the Lord's de- 
scription of the whole interval between his first and second coming (Matt. xiii. 
24 — 30, 38—43): Let both grow together until the harvest. The harvest is the 
end of this dispensation; when the Son of Man shall return, with the holy 
angels, who are the reapers. Let both tares and wheat grovj together, is charac- 
teristic of the whole period of the Lord's absence. Now, I ask, is this phrase, 
let both grow together, equally characteristic of the Millennium and of this dis- 
pensation'? If it be answered, yes; I cannot for a moment dispute that such a 
Millennium will precede the coming of the Lord: we have it already. The 
Millennium predicted by the Holy Ghost is not, however, such a mixed state 
of things as this would make it. Its characteristics are, the people shall be all 
righteous — They shall all know the Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest 
of them — They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain — The earth 
shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea — From 
the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great 
among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and 
a pure offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of 
hosts. These, and similar predictions, manifestly describe a state of things 
contrasted with the present. That state is the Millennium. The tares must 
be removed previous and preparatory to the Millennium. The season of the 
removal of the tares is the harvest. The harvest is the period of the Lord's 
coming with the holy angels. Consequently, the Lord's coming must be pre- 
vious and preparatory to the Millennium. 

It may here be remarked, how every sectarian effort to get what is called a 
pure church, is an abortive attempt to antedate the Millennium by the removal 
of the tares. In all such attempts the wheat is also removed, or tares are mis- 
taken for wheat, or both, and the scheme proves to be a failure. A visible 
church, and open communion, correspond with our Lord's, let both grow to- 
gether until the harvest. Then, indeed, "the ungodly shall not stand in the 
judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." 
17 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom 
his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say 
unto you, that he shall make him ruler overall his goods. But 
and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord de- 
layeth his coming, and [mark the connection between this 
state of heart and the life consequent thereupon] shall begin to 
smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the 
drunken; the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when 
he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of; 
and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with 
the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 
For as a man, travelling into a far country, called his own 
servants, and delivered unto them his goods, and said, Occupy 
till I come; and when he came, reckoned with them according 
to their diligence or negligence: so, when the Son of Man 
shall come in his glory, shall he do with all the nations (there is 
no mention of the resurrection of the dead), separating them one 
from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.* 
Occupy till I come, is therefore the Lord's answer to the in- 
quiry now before us; and it loudly calls to an honest, con- 
scientious, self-denying, and persevering faithfulness in the use 
of all the opportunities which God has given us, of improving 
ourselves or benefitting others. What shall we do, then? 
That must depend upon who and what we are, and what talents 
we have received to trade withal. This opens a wide field of 
social, relative, and professional details, concerning many of 
which the Scripture is express and clear. Let diligent search 
be made, therefore, among God's precepts, for those which are 
peculiarly applicable to our case; and let no compromising 
casuistry warp the verdict of our conscience. There must, 
indeed, remain many particulars concerning which we shall 
find no express commandment, and in the management of 
which we are consequently left to the exercise of a discretion, 
which is the best possible trial of our love. Love is fruitful 
in devising expedients to please: and it is worthy of remark — 
nay, it should never be lost sight of — that the slothful servant 

* The 14th verse of thisxxvth chapter, is an unfinished form of sentence, 
beginning with the relative cecr7rzp. Sla-nip yctp a.vQ poena? et7ro<fn/u.aev iKAMs-i tow; tSiovs 
fovKcvS) kxi 7r<x.pi£a»t£v, &c. There is no correlative to cea-mp to be found in the 
whole context of the parable; the sentence, therefore, is still an unfinished one 
at the 30th verse; and I understand the parallel statement, from verse 31 to 
the end, as supplying the correlative to the parable of the talents. This latter 
statement is usually called the parable of the sheep and the goats: but it is not 
a parable at all. The language describes the literal facts of the case — the 
coming of the Lord in person; the righteous and the wicked standing before 
him — and the mention of the sheep and the goats is merely a simile illustra- 
tive of the separation which he will then effect between the righteous and the 
wicked. 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

and the goats are described as perishing, not for any disobe- 
dience to a positive command, but for such omissions as betray- 
ed a want of active ingenuous love: Inasmuch as ye did it not 
to the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me. 

In conclusion, I request the reader to advert to the opening 
observations of this paper, and to mark well that the question 
at issue is too vital in itself, and too comprehensive in its in- 
evitable connection, for any Christian man to turn away from 
with impunity. With the unfeigned affection of a brother, and 
the lawful authority of a minister of Christ's church, I charge 
him to guard against allowing his convictions concerning these 
great things of God to remain adrift, like a vessel without a 
helm: and as a beacon of warning, I here record a small but 
fruitful incident; fruitful, because characteristic. 

After discussing the subject of this paper, and other similar 
topics, with an Evangelical Clergyman who denied and oppos- 
ed my views, I ceased to occupy the defensive position, and 
asked him his view of several of those passages of Scripture 
which are the turning points of the whole debate. The substance 
of his reply on each of these occasions was, The passage is very 
important: very important, indeed: but I have not made up my 
mind as to the meaning of it! 

When such ignorance is felt, and the consequent necessity 
for inquiry is admitted, all is well — (this is the condition of 
the most advanced, at some point or other) — but when it is ac- 
companied by ill-dissembled self-complacency on the score of 
spirituality of mind, as though spirituality were an excuse for 
ignorance (and that in a teacher, too)! and not only so, but as 
though advancing intelligence were necessarily an enemy to 
spirituality; and when, together with all this, the interpreta- 
tion of those very passages offered by a brother is peremptorily 
and confidently denied as carnal and worldly; then, certainly, 
there is ground for severe animadversion, more severe than 1 
choose to write in this place. 

Luther said, "Charity beareth all things, faith nothing." 
This was well said. True faith is jealous for the honour of 
her Lord, and can bear no compromise. True charity is self- 
denying for the salvation of men; and therefore, gentle unto 
all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that op- 
pose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repent- 
ance to the acknowledging of the truth. (2 Tim. ii. 24, 25.) 



SERMON I. 
The Second Jldvent of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Acts i. 11. "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this 
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." 

My Brethren, we have been for some weeks examining the 
leading facts on which Christianity is founded. I have called 
your attention to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus as a fact, 
stating it distinctly, and drawing forth some of the most mo- 
mentous truths connected with it. Then I brought before you 
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead, showing you 
the nature and evidence of the fact, and the glad tidings of the 
truth connected with it. Then the ascension of our risen Lord 
into heaven, again stating with distinctness what the fact is, and 
pointing out the glorious truths resulting from it. On last 
Sunday I called your attention to the coming of the Holy Ghost 
as a fact, stating what and how it was, and pointing out some 
of the truths connected therewith. 

I am now to direct you to another fact, — the second coming of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. This differs essentially in our views 
from the former, in that they are all past, while this is future: 
they are history, — this still remains prophecy. The reason 
why this makes such a difference with us, is, because we are 
in the habit of attributing more certainty to that which is ac- 
tually done, than to that which is only promised. In this we 
are right when the word is the promise of man, because man is 
deceitful, and may promise against his intention of acting; or, 
granting him sincere, man is changeable, and may alter his 
mind after promising; or supposing him resolutely to endeavour 
to do what he honestly promises, he is weak and may be hin- 
dered by sickness, by calamity, or death, or by a variety of 
impediments with which he is continually surrounded, and over 
which he has no commanding control. But we must guard 
ourselves against applying this principle where God is con- 
cerned. The word of God is sure, "Hath he said, and shall 
he not do it? Hath he spoken and shall he not bring it to 
pass?" God is essentially truth, — he cannot deceive. God is 
17* 



36 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

unchangeable, — he cannot alter his mind. God is almighty — 
he cannot be hindered by any impediment. 

The first coming of Christ, to which we have been giving 
our attention, was long a theme of prophecy. It had its deep 
and imperishable roots in the word of God. At the fulness of 
the appointed time, it blossomed forth into manifest history. 
But now, centuries after it has come to pass, it is not a whit 
more certain, than it was centuries before it came to pass: and 
our reliance on it, now that it is history, cannot be more safe 
than was the reliance upon it of Moses or Abraham, while it 
was prophecy. 

The second coming of the Lord Jesus, is still prophecy. 
Here is a plain statement, delivered by angel messengers,* sent 
direct from God to address the astonished disciples of the 
ascending Saviour. "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing 
up into heaven?" They were awe-struck; they were stupified 
with amazement, and stood gazing up like men beside them- 
selves. Why is this? said the angels: "this same Jesus who is 
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
as ye have seen him go into heaven. " This is the fact: this 
fact is not directly disputed by any persons professing and 
calling themselves Christians; it is reiterated in the Scriptures; 
it is embodied in the confession of every Christian Church: 
"He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the 
dead." But though generally admitted as a fact, it is not looked 
to, — it is not enjoyed, — it is not leaned on by the Christian 
Church, in the same manner as the fact of the first advent. It 
is contemplated only occasionally, and then, doubtfully, and of 
course, ineffectually. There is not that repose of soul upon it 
which we throw on the cross. And why not? God's word is 
as certain before accomplishment as after. One reason is, that 
the particulars of it are not understood. They are not examined 
as if men wished to know them; and we are all aware of the 
amazing difference it makes in our interest on any subject, 
whether we hear or read only the general statement, or are 
made acquainted with a variety of particulars. It is upon par- 
ticulars that the mind dwells. Our attention is arrested by 
each as they successively pass in review, and thus the general 
object becomes invested with' the combined interest of all the 
details. We have felt this when taking a view of the several 
particulars connected with our Lord's first coming. I wish 
now to adopt the same course connected with the second; in 
order, that, by having the subject broken into its constituent 

* They are called men, Acts i. 10, and some suppose they were Moses and 
Elias, (See Luke 9. 30,) others suppose, that although angels; they were called 
men, because they appeared in the form of men, Gen. 18. 2. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 37 

parts, and presented in succession to our minds, the general 
vagueness may be dispersed, something of individuality and 
precision given to the subject, and we may experience that 
species of interest in it which it is our duty, and our Christian 
privilege to enjoy, in every word of God. 

I. — The first point, then, to which I call your attention is 
the time of our Lord's coming again. This may be considered 
either directly, with regard to the age of the world, or relatively, 
with regard to other events which are also to take place. 

1. In connection with the first we neither know nor can 
know the time precisely of our Lord's coming; — and for this 
simple reason, that God has not made it known. It is not 
recorded in the written word of God. It is not given to be 
revealed in the living word of God — Jesus Christ, God mani- 
fested in the flesh. It is amongst the secret things which are 
yet hid in the Father, who is God invisible. In this chapter 
we read, that when the Apostles asked our Lord if he would at 
that time restore the kingdom to Israel, they received this re- 
ply: "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the 
Father hath put in his own power." Mark this expression. 
Are not all things in God's power? Yes; but in a different 
sense. When God hath once spoken a thing it is out of his 
power, in a certain sense, not to fulfil his word. St. Paul says 
of God, He cannot deny himself. And it is written, The Scrip- 
ture cannot be broken. If, then, a revelation had been given in 
Scripture of the time of restoring the kingdom to Israel, or the 
time of the second coming of Christ, God would in a certain 
sense have put it out of his own power into that of the creatures 
who received the revelation; and he could not deny his own 
word: but if he has withheld any revelation of the matter, — if 
he has preserved silence upon the point, — if he has given no 
pledge: then he has kept it strictly within his own power: yet 
there is no doubtfulness in the mind of God as to the fulfilment 
of the purpose; it is as sure though he has not given a revela- 
tion, as if he had: it is his* intention, and not his declaration, 
that constitutes true certainty. There is essential certainty in 
the mind of God, — revealed certainty in the word of God. If 
he has made no revelation, he has the point in his own power. 
This will explain the saying of our Lord in the 13th chapter 
of Mark, the 32nd verse: "Of that day and that hour knoweth 
no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, 
but the Father." Not the Son, because he is God manifest — 
the word of God. In the unity of the godhead, whatsoever the 
Father knoweth that knoweth the Son; but in his mediatorial 
communications to mankind — his Messiahship, or anointing to 
a specified office and work, this point is not among the things 



38 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

transcribed into God manifested in the Son, but is reserved in 
the unrevealed invisibility of the Father. 

But it may be inquired, are there not prophetic periods re- 
vealed? Do we not read of 2300 days, and then the sanctuary 
shall be cleansed? And do we not read of 1260 days, and 1290 
days, and that blessed is he that cometh to the 1335 days? And 
is there not much written in Daniel and the Apocalypse, explana- 
tory of these dates? Most true. And those students of God's 
word and providence, who examine into those periods, with all 
the advantages of accurate historical information, and critical ac- 
quaintance with the original languages, do well, very well, and 
are entitled to the gratitude of the Church. Much may doubt- 
less be ascertained, and much that is valuable: but still the pre- 
cise date of the Lord's Advent cannot be known. It is yet a 
matter of dispute, whether the above-mentioned periods of 
prophetic chronology are to be considered as literal days, or as 
years of 360 days each. But rejecting as untenable, for many 
reasons, the notion of literal days, still the periods in question 
are involved in obscurity as to their commencement, and con- 
sequently of course as to their termination.* And even if 

* This remark applies also to the chronology of the world: so that the exact 
time of the Lord's Advent would be still unknown, even if we could adopt with 
confidence the interpretation of St. Barnabas. Consider, says that Father of 
the Apostolic age, consider, my children, what that signifies, he finished them in 
six days. The meaning of it is this: that in six thousand years the Lord God will 
bring all things to an end. For vnthhim one day is a thousand years, as himself 
testvfieth, saying, Behold! this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, chil- 
dren, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished. 
And what is that he saith, And he rested the seventh day 1 ? He meaneth this; 
that when his Son shall come, and abolish the season of the wicked one, and, judge 
the ungodly, and shall change the sun, and the moon, and the stars, then he shall 
gloriously rest in that seventh day. — Epist. Barn. § xv. Archbishop Wake's 
Translation. 

Many persons feel disposed to place much reliance upon the statements of 
the primitive Fathers, as being the most competent interpreters of the mind of 
the Apostles. I know not how the above passage will fare with such persons; 
whether they will deem it decisive in the way of scriptural interpretation, and 
of course adopt it; or whether they will adventure an exercise of private judg- 
ment, arraign it at the bar of Scripture, and deny that there is any sufficient 
foundation for it — as we presume to do with another statement in the same 
epistle of St. Barnabas: — Understand, therefore, children, these things more fully, 
that Abraham, who was the first that brought in circumcision, looking forward in 
the Spirit to Jesus, circumcised, having received the mystery of three letters. For 
the Scripture says that Abraham circumcised three hundred and eighteen men of 
his house. But what, therefore, ivas the mystery that was made known unto him? 
Mark first the eighteen, and next the three hundred. For the numbered letters of 
ten and eight are I H; and these denote Jesus. And because the cross was that by 
which we were to find grace, therefore he adds three hundred; the note of which is 
T, the figure of the cross. Wherefore, by two letters he signified Jesus, and by the 
third his cross. He who has put the engrafted gift of this doctrine within us, 
knows that I never taught to any one a more certain truth: but I trust that ye are 
worthy of it. — Ibid. § ix. Wake's Translation. 

The writings of Paul and Barnabas are as different in tone and charac- 
ter, as if many centuries had intervened between the two men. The reason is 
obvious. Paul was kept from Judaising by special inspiration of God. Bar- 
nabas was not. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 39 

their commencement could be certainly ascertained, there 
would still be another obscurity, as to whether they were to 
be taken in sequence, or one involving others. Nay, even if 
this were overcome, and we knew both their commencement 
and that they were to be taken in sequence, yet, still, we could 
not date the advent with precision, for the Lord says, The last 
days shall be shortened; and we no where read how much. 

In entering upon this subject, therefore, I altogether disclaim 
every attempt to fix the period of the world's history, at which 
the second advent of our Lord is to take place. I earnestly 
press this point on your attention, because I am persuaded that 
much injury has been done to a good cause, by vain endeavours 
to determine the precise time. But I beseech you, my brethren, 
in giving your attention to it, to discriminate between the im- 
portance of the subject itself, and the zeal (in this particular in- 
discreet) of those warm and faithful defenders of it, who have 
so far mistaken their office. 

2. — Another aspect under which we may consider the time, 
is relatively to other events. On this point we have much light. 
The event which in this connection is of most importance, is 
the establishment of that glorious period of blessedness which 
is predicted to take place over all the earth, when the king- 
doms of the world shall become the kingdoms of God, and of 
his Christ; when men shall learn war no more, but beat their 
swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; 
when all shall know the Lord, from the least unto the greatest, 
when they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy moun- 
tain, — for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the seas. Such a period, you are 
well aware, is plainly and repeatedly predicted. Now I wish 
to shew you, that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will 
precede and usher in, that glorious state of blessedness on earth. 

It w T ill precede it, — for at the time of the Lord's coming, 
the earth, instead of being in a millennial state of holiness, and 
happiness, and harmony, will be in a state resembling the 
wide-spread wickedness of the days of Noah and of Lot. This 
is precise and plain as you learn from the 17th chapter of St. 
Luke: "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the 
days of the Son of Man: they did eat, they drank, they mar- 
ried wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe 
entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 
Likewise, also, as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they 
drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but 
the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and 
brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all: even thus shall 
it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." You have 



V 

40 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

a further corroboration in the Epistle to the Thessalonians. 
'Yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh 
as a thief in the night; for when they shall say, peace and 
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail 
upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape." Now 
if the world is to be as it was in the days of Noah, or as the 
cities of the plain in the days of Lot, in a state of ease, peace, 
and fancied security, until suddenly the Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven with the voice of an archangel and the 
trump of God; then it appears, that instead of coming when the 
earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, namely, at the 
end of, or during, that period of blessedness; he comes at the 
beginning, and while the earth with its inhabitants are in the 
condition in which you see them: for at this present time, the 
world is as it was in the days of Noah, they eat, they drink, 
they plant, they build, they marry, and are given in marriage, 
— they do not care for God, they do not trouble themselves 
about his appearing. "Where is the promise of his coming?" 
say they, the scoffers of the last time; "for since the fathers fell 
asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of 
the creation." "Be not afraid," they continue, strengthening 
themselves in their reckless disregard of the word of God;" 
"be not afraid, there is no danger; we are doing no more than 
others have done before us, for centuries. And as to this second 
coming of Jesus Christ, it is only the interpretation of intem- 
perate enthusiasts. There is no such thing to be apprehended." 
Thus, as the associates of Noah made light of the threatening 
of the approaching deluge; and the sons-in-law of Lot treated 
as idle tales his warning of impending destruction: so it is the 
essential characteristic of the world now, practically to despise 
as an idle tale, the plainest sayings of the word of God, respect- 
ing the coming and kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. They are saying, peace and safety, promising them- 
selves stability, and enjoying their idols. "Their land is full 
of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures: 
their land is full of horses, neither is there any end of their 
chariots." Their land also is full of amusements, "and the 
harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their 
feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither con- 
sider the operations of his hands." Therefore, behold, the day 
of the Lord of Hosts shall come suddenly upon them, and the 
lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of 
man shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted 
in that day. For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon 
every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is 
lifted up, and he shall be brought low; and upon all the cedars 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 4X 

of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks 
of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the 
hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon 
every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon 
all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed 
down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the 
Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.* 

The force of this argument, however, is lost upon some minds, 
or at least weakened in some degree, by an idea collected from 
the 20th chapter of Revelations, the 7th verse: "When the 
thousand years are expired, " namely, the thousand years of 
blessedness previously described — "Satan shall be loosed out 
of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are 
in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather 
them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of 
the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and 
compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; 
and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured 
them." The objection is this: here is a description of wick- 
edness again, at the end of that period of blessedness; and 
therefore, the world might then be, in consequence of that re- 
viving wickedness, in a state similar to that of the times of 
Noah and of Lot, and then is the time of the coming of the 
Lord; so that although Christ should not come till after the 
period of blessedness, yet, still he might find the world in a 
state of wickedness when he does come. Now, in reply to 
this, I observe: — first, that the passage does not describe such 
a state as that of the world in the days of Noah and Lot, a 
state of planting, and building, marrying, and giving in mar- 
riage; or, as it is described in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
a state of fancied peace, and safety, and carelessness about God; 
but, on the contrary, a state of conflict just commenced, which 
is soon put an end to by the immediate power of God. There- 
fore there is no ground for the supposition that the world will 
then go back again to a condition of carelessness and ease, 
similar to its present state, or its state in the days of Noah 
and Lot. Furthermore, supposing the passage did imply 
this; supposing it did afford foundation for saying that the 
world subsequent to the Millennium would be in that con- 
dition; still the objection would not hold good against our 
argument; for I proceed to shew you, not only that the world 
shall be in a wicked state at the coming of the Lord, but that 
it shall continue in such a state till the Lord come. 

The mystery of iniquity which worked in the Apostles' time, 
and which has manifested itself still more since, is described 

* Isaiah ii. and v. 



42 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

under its last form as the man of sin, as continuing to work till 
it is banished and destroyed by the brightness of the Lord's 
coming,* consequently there shall be no interval between the 
time of the Apostle and the coming of our Lord, during which, 
the mystery of iniquity shall not be at work, and no Millen- 
nium, therefore, between the creation of the world and the 
second coming of Christ. This agrees with the parable of the 
tares, Matt. xiii. 24: "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto 
a man which sowed good seed in his field; but while men 
slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and 
went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought 
forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of 
the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow 
good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He 
said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said 
unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 
But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up 
also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the 
harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers, 
Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to 
burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn." Our Lord's 
interpretation is in the 37th verse. "He that sowed the good 
seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world; the good seed 
are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children 
of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; 
the harvest is the end of the world:" the word translated 
"world" here, is not the same as in the other verse: it is cum — 
in the former it was Kc^oo-, signifying the whole planet, where- 
as this [aiw] signifies the age or dispensation:! the harvest is 
the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. As there- 
fore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it 
be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth 
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things 
that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them 
into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of 
teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the 
kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him 
hear." Let him hear and understand, that the children of the 
devil, the tares; and the children of God, the wheat; are both 
growing together till the harvest; and at the harvest, the Lord 
appears with his angels, the reapers; so that there shall be no 
period previous to his coming, in which there shall be an un- 
mixed holy converted world, clear of tares. That is, there 

* 2 Thess. ii. 

t The field is 6 Koo-juoo; the world — 38. The harvest is wnxtH*. tov mwot, 
the winding up of the age— 39. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 43 

shall be no Millennium before Christ comes; Christ will usher 
it in when he comes, but there must be mixture until then, — 
children of the kingdom, and children of the wicked one. 

This view is further confirmed, by the revealed design of 
this present dispensation, which is to convert sinners out of 
the world. Read in the Acts of the Apostles,* how James in- 
terpreted Peter's embassy, namely, that the object w r as not to 
convert the world, but to take a people out of the world from 
among the Gentiles. To this agrees the history of the Church, 
which has not been holding ground in the parts of the world 
where she has gone. God has taken out a people, and the 
candlestick has been removed. Where are the seven churches 
of Asia? Where are the congregations that were in Corinth 
and in Carthage? Christianity took her people out, and then 
departed. Her course has resembled the emigrations of a pil- 
grim, rather than the acquisitions of a conqueror; because her 
object was not universal conversion, but the saving an elect 
church, the members of Christ's mystical body, to reign with 
him in righteousness over the new earth. This argument I 
put with all sincerity and fairness: I am not conscious of evad- 
ing the point in any way: no, my brethren, my object is not 
to make out an apparent case, by a wilfully ex-parte statement, 
but honestly to declare to you, what in my soul I believe to 
be the truth of God. 

The argument thus put is strong: I have found and felt it so 
in conversation with persons of different views. 

II. — Driven to the conviction, that these passages of Scrip- 
ture, descriptive of the Lord's coming, must find their fulfil- 
ment at the commencement of the Millennium: the mind pre- 
possessed against the subject, has recourse to another objection, 
and argues that the event, called in these passages the coming 
of the Lord, cannot mean his personal coming. It is impossi- 
ble, continues the objector, to believe that our Lord himself 
will really stand, upon his feet, on the Mount of Olives, or 
reign over the Jewish nation, literally in person at Jerusalem; 
and who can believe, that with our Lord Jesus Christ himself 
personally reigning upon the earth, wickedness in any shape 
could again break out? Oh, no, it cannot be a personal coming: 
it must be some important movement of Providence over the 
nations, in figurative language called his coming. 

Consider this objection. Let us for a moment grant the 
supposition that it is only a providential movement, and then, 
I ask, where is his personal coming revealed in all the Bible? 
where is there a passage left that predicts his personal coming? 
and surely that cardinal point of Christian truth, the coming of 

* Chap. xv. 
18 



44 ' SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

Jesus Christ in glory to judge the world, will not be denied 
altogether. Where, then, is it revealed? Select your passage; 
and whatever passage you select, we will shew that it must be 
fulfilled at the commencement of the Millennium. If you 
deny our Lord's personal coming at the commencement of the 
Millennium, we may, upon your principles, deny it altogether, 
and require you to prove it. If you advance texts to prove it, 
we take the context of your proofs, and proceed to shew that 
it must be at the commencement of the Millennium. This is 
of itself sufficient to refute the objection. 

But further: with regard to apparent difficulties, — there are 
these in every case; everything connected with the infinite 
God must, from the nature of the case, have some difficulties 
to finite minds like ours; and therefore difficulties, if fairly 
considered, can form no objection to revealed truth. Consider 
the analogy of God's dealings, for here we shall be materially 
assisted. Let us consider how difficulties must have presented 
themselves to inquiring minds amongst the Jews, previous to 
our Lord's first coming. They, were informed by the prophets 
that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, — that he would be 
despised and rejected of men, — that he would be betrayed by 
one of his own familiar friends, — that he would be nailed to a 
tree,- — that he would be buried. Let us suppose a conversa- 
tion to have taken place previous to his first coming between 
certain Jews, on the one side, who had fastened their attention 
upon the promised glory of their great King; not understand- 
ing, or refusing to attend to, what the prophets had written 
concerning his humiliation; and on the other side, Simeon and 
Anna, who were waiting for the consolation of Israel, and 
hailing the infant Jesus as the promised Messiah. You will 
remember that the Jewish nation generally stumbled at that 
stumbling-stone, the humiliation of Jesus. The Christian 
church has taken the other course; and exhausting her atten- 
tion on his first coming, has remained heedless of, and is now 
prepossessed against, what the prophets have written concern- 
ing his glory. There are exceptions, as there were amongst 
the Jews at the first advent; but, generally speaking, this is 
the state of the case. Let us then, for illustration's sake, con-» 
sider this conversation between Simeon and a company of 
Jewish priests. He quotes the 7th chapter of Isaiah: "Behold, 
a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name 
Immanuel." "Immanuel," says Simeon, means "God with 
us" — that is, the Messiah spoken of by all the prophets. I 
believe, therefore, that he shall be born of a virgin." We 
may easily conceive them saying in reply, "Nay, impossible; 
the thing is full of difficulties: how can we believe it? The 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 45 

meaning must be spiritual; we do not deny that the passage 
refers to the Messiah. Immanuel is too plain a word to admit 
of doubt; but the language can only mean that he shall be holy 
from his birth. It is wild and extravagant to interpret it 
literally, and expect such an unnatural impossibility." "Nay," 
replies Simeon, I dispute not Messiah's holiness. What you 
say, is quite true as a general statement, but it is not the mean- 
ing of this prophecy. The prophet says, 'A virgin shall con- 
ceive and bear a son:' therefore I expect the event according- 
ly." Then he would quote the 53d chapter, and say, "He 
shall be despised and rejected, cut off and laid in the grave." 
We may imagine them saying, "How! the Messiah, who is 
to reign in glory, — to restore the kingdom to Israel, — to sit on 
the throne of David, and rule for ever and ever, — cut off and 
laid in the grave? It must be a figurative mode of expressing 
his condescension." "Nay," answers the old man, "whatever 
figurative meaning we may put upon it, I believe the fact will 
be as the prophet has spoken." 

Now, my brethren, we know how the events came to pass: 
we see also the consequence, that while the advocates for a 
spiritual interpretation rejected Jesus, the old man, w T ho must 
have adhered to the literal interpretation, was ready to ac- 
knowledge him, to take him up in his arms, and say, "Lord, 
now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes 
have seen thy salvation." We know that it happened in other 
respects according to the literal sense, — that Messiah was a 
man of sorrow, — that he was despised and rejected of men, — 
cut off, and laid in the grave. 

This is full of instruction to us. The events connected with 
the Lord's second coming are similarly predicted. He shall 
come in like manner as he went, — that was, in his human per- 
son. He shall reign over all the earth, that new earth wherein 
dwelleth righteousness; he shall sit on the throne of David, 
over the house of Jacob for ever; he shall confound his ene- 
mies, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel; he sh-all 
restore the Jews, and comfort them after their long period of 
banishment and persecution.* Let us, for the sake of illustra- 
tion, suppose a conversation between a Christian who holds 
these views, and a company whether of priests or people in 
these days, who think it is more sober-minded to account for 
the expression of the prophets by the assumption of a spiritual 
interpretation. Imagine such a one quoting the 9th chapter of 
Isaiah, the 6th and 7th verses: "For unto us a child is born, 
unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his 
shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 

* Zech. xiv. 9. Luke i. 32, 33. and xix. 27. Rev. ii. 26, 27. Ezek. xxxvii. 



45 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of 
Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there 
shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his king- 
dom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with 
justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord 
of hosts will perform this." There can be no mistake in this: 
here is his birth declared, his name, and his reign over the 
kingdom of David. He says, "The kingdom of David is the 
rule over the Jewish nation, the twelve tribes, as unbroken in 
the days of David, and the throne is the personal government 
over them in Jerusalem. I expect, accordingly, that Messiah 
shall appear again; that he shall sit on the throne of David, 
and rule over the whole twelve tribes of Israel in \ the holy 
land/' "Nay," is the reply; "the meaning of this highly 
figurative language is, that he shall rule spiritually in the hearts 
of his people; it signifies that holy authority which he exer- 
cises over all his people now, and will exercise over all the 
nations of the earth when converted, together with the Jews. 
This is the meaning, and it is the wildest extravagance to in- 
terpret and expect it literally, as the throne of David in Jeru- 
salem." The answer is, "I do not deny the spiritual truth you 
state. It is, indeed, quite true that he reigns invisibly in the 
hearts of his people now, and that this reign is in several pass- 
ages of Scripture called the kingdom of God, or of heaven. 
This is a precious truth, in which I greatly delight; but this 
is not the statement of the prophet in the passage before us; 
his statement is, not that the Lord is reigning in their hearts, 
but that he will reign over the house of Jacob; which I expect 
to be fulfilled literally as it is stated." "It cannot be," say 
the others: "Why, how derogatory to the dignity of the glo- 
rious Saviour of man, to leave the glory of his Father, and 
return to reign on the earth. The meaning must be spiritual: 
there are too many difficulties in the way of a literal interpre- 
tation. 

In the case of the first Advent, according to the predictions 
of the prophet, the events, as we have seen, proved the cor- 
rectness of the literal interpretation. And so will it be in the 
case now before us. To deny this, is to deal in a most arbi- 
trary manner with the language of the prophets; assuming that 
nothing can be literally predicted but what has already been 
fulfilled. 

Suppose we take the spiritual interpretation, and reject the 
literal, what shall we say to the Jews? If we maintain that 
this prediction in the 9th chapter is spiritual, what consistent 
answer shall we give to the Jew, when he tells us that the 
meaning of the virgin bearing a son, as predicted in the 7th 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 47 

chapter, is also spiritual, and so denies the incarnation? Oh, 
what a stumbling-block do we throw in his way by doing this? 
We take the Scriptures and break them asunder. We take 
the 7th chapter and insist that the meaning is literal, but take 
the 9th chapter and insist that the meaning is spiritual. This 
is not a fanciful objection. I have heard a Jew say to a Chris- 
tian minister, We shall not believe you, — how can you expect 
it, when you take as much as is convenient for yourselves, and 
maintain it to be literal, and escape from the rest by maintain- 
ing that it is spiritual. 

Thus I have called your attention to two points, — the time 
and nature of the Advent, disclaiming the slightest intention 
to fix precisely the date; but proving as I think with much 
Scriptural power, that the time relatively considered is at the 
commencement of the Millennium, and that the Advent proved 
to take place at that time is the personal Advent. I shall now 
only call your attention further to the state of mind in which 
this glorious personal appearing of our Lord should be expect- 
ed by us. My Brethren, it is the end that gives importance to 
the progress of any proceeding. It is the winding up of a 
transaction that gives weight to every preceding step. It is 
the settling of the account, which reflects its sovereign power 
over the details of the business. Now with what amazing 
diversity of feeling, do men anticipate the winding up of an 
open transaction, the settling a long standing account. 

My brethren, among ourselves at this present time there is 
a transaction going forward; a great transaction of business for 
eternity. Temptations abound. Fraud holds out a promise 
of gain. Unfaithfulness holds out a promise of ease. Vanity 
holds out a promise of distinction. Unbelief holds out a pro- 
mise of impunity. While, on the other side, faith and faith- 
fulness speak loudly and clearly of glory, honour, and immor- 
tality. The business proceeds. Men are pledged and busy 
on every side: and the end, — yes, the end — the day of the 
Lord's reckoning, the coming of Jesus Christ draweth nigh. 

With what marvellous variety of feelings do we await the 
crisis! To every dishonest mind, to every plausible hypo- 
crite, to every flatterer and backbiter, to every secret cheat, 
and thief, and liar, and drunkard, to every fornicator, idolater, 
adulterer, extortioner, to every self-righteous formalist, every 
self-deceived sentimentalist, every heady high-minded Anti- 
nomian, to every unbeliever of every class and every charac- 
ter, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ will prove the hour 
of death — eternal death! The brightness of it will strike the 
ungodly into hell, and the awful sound of it will roll in un- 
abated fury over them throughout eternity! But to the chil- 
18* 



4g SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

dren of God, to the believer in Jesus crucified and risen from 
the dead, to the self-condemning penitent, humbly weeping at 
the foot of the cross, and reposing in holy peace upon the pre- 
cious blood of sprinkling; to every new creature quickened by 
the Holy Ghost, groaning after deliverance from this body of 
death, and thirsting for higher and nearer conformity to the 
character of God's dear Son — to every such child of God who 
has fallen asleep in Jesus since the beginning of the world, 
and to every such child of God who shall be then alive upon 
the earth, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ will be light, 
and life, and joy; deliverance from every danger, every sor- 
row, every sin; the birth-day of admission to an inheritance 
incorruptible, undefined, and that fadeth not away; unmingled 
gladness, because unmingled holiness; perfect conformity to 
the image of Jesus I Hallelujah! Lord Jesus! when shall 
it be? Hasten it in its time! Even so come! 



SERMON II. 
Signs of the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

St. Luke xxi. 24 — 28. "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall 

be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down 

of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 
"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and 

upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves 

roaring. 
"Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which 

are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 
"And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and 

great glory. 
"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your 

heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." 

These are words of great solemnity in themselves, and to 
ascertain the right meaning of them, must needs be a matter of 
lively interest to every true disciple of Christ. Of affectionate 
and practical interest; for, my dear Brethren, an inquiry into 
the unfulfilled prophecies of the word of the Lord, so far from 
being a mark of carnal inquisitiveness, and curious unsanctified 
speculation, as it has been rashly represented to be, is in truth 
an exercise of sincere love towards an absent brother. 

What is prophecy? A simple answer to this simple question 
will materially assist us in the investigation of the passage now 
before us. Here we are assembled on the 30th of November, 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 49 

in the year of our Lord 1834, and in the year of the world, as 
we believe, 5838. Now let us consider time as a great chain, 
and every year a link. At this moment we are fastened to one 
link of this chain. If we look back, we can trace several links. 
First, and simplest; by the exercise of our own memory we 
can get into the link next behind us, (that is, last year,) and to 
the link next behind that; and there are probably persons here 
present, who in this way can retrace fifty, or sixty, or seventy 
links. So ends individual experience. But then, by means 
of authentic history we can get still further back. For exam- 
ple, we can contemplate the year 1760, when George the III. 
ascended the throne of England; or tracing back a hundred 
links more through the restoration, we can go to the year 1660, 
when Cromwell usurped the government of this kingdom; or 
tracing another hundred links, we can go to the reign of Mary, 
in 1560, when the Protestant Reformers were persecuted and 
burned as heretics; or retracing above a thousand links more, 
and turning our attention to Italy instead of England, we may 
behold the imperial armies of Vespasian and Titus; and follow- 
ing them to the land of Judea, we may contemplate the execu- 
tion of the predicted ruin upon the Jewish nation, and Jerusa- 
lem, the Holy City. Or looking still further back, we may 
reach the days of Caesar Augustus, when Jesus Christ was born 
in Bethlehem of Judea. Or stretching backward again, through 
six hundred links, we may discern the magnificence of Babylon, 
under Nebuchadnezzar, the king. And thus going back, we 
might find Moses upon the chain of time, and Abraham, and 
Noah, and Enoch, and Adam. 

We perceive, then, how wide a field is open to our contem- 
plation when we look backward, and thus we become prepared 
to appreciate an intelligent answer to the question, What is 
prophecy? 

To prophesy is to look forward, and tell the events of years 
to come, even as history tells the events of years that are past. 
Who then can prophesy? Who on this day can enter into the 
next link of time, and tell us what shall be in 1835? Nay, 
who can trace even this expiring link to its close, arrive with 
precision at the 31st December, and tell us what shall be at its 
junction with the 1st of January? Nay, more — who can tell 
what a day, or an hour, may bring forth? 

Here we stand! If we look back, we have a bright stream 
of light and knowledge: if we look forward, we look into dark- 
ness impenetrable by man. Who then can prophesy? Only 
the living God, with whom is no darkness at all, — the great 
Jehovah, the Ruler of heaven and earth, who knoweth the end 
from the beginning, and whose high prerogative it is to declare 



50 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

the things which shall be hereafter. Time is without progress 
before Him. Eternity past, and eternity to come, with all 
their teeming incidents, stand in his view as one great, fixed, 
unchanged, and unchangeable picture, inscribed with this one 
word, — now! 

With what infinite facility can God tell the future to us, as 
well as the past. He not only sees things in their order, in 
his foreknowledge of what is to be, but he sets them in their 
order, in his predestinating purpose of what shall be. He alone 
can prophesy, because he alone can predestinate. 

Now suppose that God had revealed to one of his faithful 
servants, fifty years ago, and had caused him to write in a book 
the coming events of this or any other country for a hundred 
years; at this time, it is evident, the first half would be history, 
the other half prophecy. It was all prophecy fifty years ago; 
the events of those fifty years have turned one-half into history, 
the rest remains prophecy. But we have an advantage in 
reading it, — an advantage of confidence and of interpretation; 
of confidence, because seeing that fifty years have fallen out 
according to its predictions, we have an assurance that the re- 
mainder speaks the coming events of the next fifty; — of inter- 
pretation, because by comparing the events of the past fifty 
years, with the language of the first half of the book, we should 
see how the prophetic statement was adapted to the event, and 
learn in that manner to interpret the remainder. 

This communicates something of our position as regards the 
word of God; and amongst other passages the one I have just 
read. — Eighteen hundred years ago, the Lord speaking to his 
disciples concerning the Jewish nation, said: "They shall fall 
by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all na- 
tions." When he said this, it was prophecy, and it remained 
prophecy for some few years. Then it became history. While 
it was prophecy there was some little difficulty in the inter- 
pretation. An objector might have said, How is it, that if they 
are to fall by the edge of the sword, they are also to be led 
away captive? The event explained. Some of them — nay, a 
large proportion — did fall by the edge of the sword, and the 
remainder were driven away captives among all nations in a 
state of degradation and persecution, in which they yet remain. 
Thus both branches of the prophecy found their fulfilment. 
"And," he proceeds, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the 
Gentiles." This, when spoken, was also prophecy, but has 
long since become history. Jerusalem has been trodden down. 
The Romans, the Saracens, the Turks, and now in our days 
the Egyptians, have, one after another, held the Holy City in 
a degrading bondage: but mark the language, "Jerusalem shall 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 51 

be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be 
fulfilled." Now Jesusalem is still trodden down: here, there- 
fore, we pass from history to prophecy, upon that word "until;" 
for the times of the Gentiles are not yet fulfilled. Thus the 
period of the world in which we live is ascertained; it is the 
time of the Gentiles, during which Jerusalem is trodden down, 
— the days of Israel's tribulation. These days will end: and 
when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, then Jerusalem 
w r ill no longer be trodden down; the Jews will be delivered 
from their captivity and tribulation, and the Holy City will 
rise and shine, for then her light shall have come, and the glory 
of her Lord shall have risen upon her.* Immediately upon 
the expiration of the times of the Gentiles, there will be signs 
in the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and on the earth dis- 
tress of nations, and the Son of man shall be seen coming in a 
cloud, with power and great glory. 

This view is confirmed in the 24th chapter of St. Matthew, 
where our Lord, having described the tribulation of the Jews, 
says, in the 29th verse, is Immediately after the tribulation of those 
days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her 
light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the 
heavens shall be shaken." This statement is somewhat more 
precise than the one in the text. St. Luke tells us, "There 
shall be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars. " St. Matthew 
says, ''The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, 
and the stars shall fall from heaven." These signs are to be fol- 
lowed by the personal appearing of the Son of Man: "Then shall 
appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the 
tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming 
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." In the con- 
cluding verse of our text, the experience of the Christian Church 
is most touchingly connected with the gathering signs of her 
Lord's return. When these things begin to come to pass, then look 
up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. 
Your redemption! your deliverance from all enemies, from all 
the evils which the craft or subtilty of the devil, or man, or 
both, have been working against you, — your deliverance from 
the corruption and bondage of mortal flesh — your perfected de- 
liverance from the last enemy that shall be destroyed — even 
Death; your transformation into the likeness of your Lord! 
This draweth nigh, when these things begin to come to pass, 
these awful things which shall make all around you to tremble 
with terror, but in the midst of which you may sing the 46th 
Psalm. 0! what things? 

Let us examine what these signs are; and to do so in the 
* Isaiah lx. See Sermon iv. 



52 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

safest and best mode, let us endeavour to make the Bible its 
own interpreter. 

First, then, on referring to the creation of the sun, moon, 
and stars, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, we have 
this account: "And God said, let there be lights in the firma- 
ment of the heaven, to divide the day from the night, and let 
them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and for years. " 
We see plainly how these lights serve for seasons, and for days, 
and for years, marking the progress of our duration by the al- 
ternation of seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and sum- 
mer and winter, and day and night. But of what were they 
to be signs? 

Of the way in which they were used as signs, we have a 
specimen in the 37th chapter of Genesis, at the 9th verse, 
where it is written that Joseph dreamed yet another dream, 
and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a 
dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven 
stars made obeisance to me. (ver. 10.) And he told it to his 
father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and 
said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? 
Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow 
down ourselves to thee to the earth? Here, then, the sun is 
used as a sign for the head of the patriarchal family, — the ruler, 
— the source of authority: he was both king and priest in his 
own house, and thus was a type of Christ, the head of all 
authorities. For this reason, the sun is used as an emblem of 
majesty, — supplying, indeed, in the natural world a sublime 
picture of dignity in the glory and splendour of his career, from 
day to day. All authority on earth is but a shadowing forth of 
that which is given to Christ. Christ is the sun of righteous- 
ness: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of his kingdom. 
The powers that be, are ordained of Christ in heaven and earth: 
rulers are appointed by him: they are his ministers, responsible 
to him for their exercise of his delegated authority. Consti- 
tuted, established authority, is an ordinance of God in Christ, 
whether wielded according to the will of one man, or according 
to law, which is the result of the combined wisdom of many 
men. Whatever has power to control, power to command, 
power to exact obedience on earth, — to restrain offenders, — to 
take the position and aspect of God towards those below, is of 
Christ, and is imaged by the sun, which is set forth as the sign 
of constituted authority. 

The moon was used as the sign of the patriarchal mother. 
She had a species of authority over the children — not in her 
own right, but by virtue of her connexion with her Lord. 
The symbol here is that of a witness for God on the earth. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 53 

The moon is a witness for the sun, shining with a light that is 
not her own; shedding much lustre indeed, but only by re- 
flection, having received it all from him, that she may bear wit- 
ness for him during his absence. In this the moon is a sign 
of the church of God, — the faithful witness for her absent, but 
ever-glorious Lord, who is her light, her priest, and king. 
For this reason the Jews had a special church holiday at the 
new moon,* in token of the light which the church is ever re- 
ceiving from the source of light, the Sun of Righteousness. 

The stars represented the immediate children of the family, 
— the eleven sons of the patriarch: and in harmony with this, 
we find them elsewhere distinctly interpreted to be the signs 
of the ministers of the church. Look to the 1st chapter of 
Revelations, the last verse: "The mystery of the seven stars 
which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden 
candlesticks: the seven stars are the angels, (or messengers, or 
ministers) of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks 
which thou sawest are the seven churches.' 5 So far, then, we 
have derived, from a comparison of Scripture with Scripture, 
the meaning of the expressions in the text, the sun, moon, and 
stars. 

There remain, however, some expressions to be explained 
still, before we shall be prepared to understand the whole text. 
"The sea and the waves roaring." The sea, in the raging of 
the storm, and roaring of the waves, presents an image of un- 
governable fury. It is so used by Job, in a very remarkable 
passage: expostulating with God in his affliction, he says, "Am 
I a sea, or a whale, that thou so watchest over me?"t — Am I 
an ungovernable creature — a creature of blind, impetuous pas- 
sions, that I require to be so specially watched? It will be 
familiar to the attentive reader of Scripture, that this expression 
is used to designate multitudes of people. In the 17th chapter 
of Isaiah, 12th verse, we have an instance of this: "Woe to the 
multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise 
of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing 
like the rushing of mighty waters. The nations shall rush 
like the rushing of many waters; but God shall rebuke them, 
and they shall flee far off." There is another example in 
Jeremiah, where, predicting the invasion of the Medes and 
Persians in vast numbers, to overthrow Babylon, it is said, in 
the 51st chapter, 42nd verse, "The sea is come up upon Ba- 
bylon; she is covered with the multitudes of the waves there- 
of." In the 26th chapter of Ezekiel, the third verse, the same 
figure occurs: "Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold! 
I am against thee, Tyrus, and will cause many nations to 

* Psalm lxxxi. 3. t Job vii. 12. 



54 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come 
up." The Psalmist, also, in describing the majesty of God, 
enlarges upon this image: "He stilleth the noise of the sea, — 
the noise of the waves, and the tumults of the people:" and in 
setting forth the stability of God's kingdom, in despite of all 
opposition, he says, "Thy throne is established, God; thy 
throne is from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, Lord, 
the floods have lifted up their waves. The Lord is mightier 
than the noise of many waters; yea, than the mighty waves of 
the sea." # Again, in the 17th chapter of Revelations, the 15th 
verse, it is thus distinctly interpreted: "The waters which 
thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multi- 
tudes, and nations, and tongues." 

Having thus got the meaning of the symbols, we may pro- 
ceed with our subject. When the times of the Gentiles shall 
be fulfilled, "the sun shall be darkened:" authority, constituted 
authority, in whatever hands, shall be deposed. That is the 
meaning of the expression: authority shall be put down, re- 
straints no longer endured. The image of God's majesty will 
be effaced from off the earth, because men will not bear it. 
"And the moon shall not give her light." Elsewhere it is said, 
"the moon shall be turned into blood." Acts ii. 20. The path 
of the witnesses of God, who set forth his light, — who, in the 
midst of that wild rejection of his authority, still image the 
holy majesty of God, and bear witness for Jesus, shall be turn- 
ed into a scene of persecution and death.* The church shall 
be an especial object of hatred, because she bears the truest 
witness for the absent Lord, against whom there is wide-spread 
combination and resistance. His imaged authority in the go- 
vernment, whatever it may be, will be despised: and his 
imaged, his reflected holiness in the church, raged against and 
scorned. "And the stars shall fall from heaven." The minister 
of the church shall be driven from their charges, in connexion 
with authority — for heaven is here used in the same symbolical 
sense, as the place of the sun and the moon, — the seat of au- 
thority: and when all authority is deposed — the sun darkened, 
and the moon turned into blood, the ministers of the church 
shall fall from their stations, in connexion with a constituted 
authority. "The sea and the waves roaring." The multitudes 
of the people, having imbibed infidel sentiments, refusing to be 
constrained by the authority of God, to be sanctified by the 

* Psalm lxv. and xciii. 

* Though I believe this to be the true interpretation, I would not be under- 
stood as excluding the possibility, or even probability of concomitant literal 
signs in the heavenly bodies. Of the facility with which such signs might be 
exhibited, we have a specimen in the supernatural darkness on the day of the 
crucifixion. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 55 

presence of his church, to be taught by the ministers of his 
gospel, — rising in ungovernable rage, throwing off all restraints, 
spreading consternation and panic over the face of the earth, — 
"Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those 
things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven 
shall be shaken." The barrier behind whose protection the 
bonds of society have been hitherto preserved, and a check 
maintained upon the violence of the human heart, and the 
ragings of the impetuosity of the human character, — that salu- 
tary check which fallen men stand so desperately in need of, — 
now broken down, and succeeded by wide-spread anarchy and 
desolation: "The mountains cast into the depths of the sea;" — the 
high places of authority merged into the chaos of the people, — 
revolutionary madness, anarchical fury, distress of nations, 
perplexity, consternation and alarm, — these are the last signs; 
we have already seen an earnest of them in a neighbouring 
country, and something like the gathering of the storm in our 
own. France has had an awful warning, — a foretaste of the still 
wider desolation that shall be hereafter. There authority, as 
such, was deposed; the church was turned into a scene of 
murderous cruelty; the ministers were driven from their 
charges, by the wide-swelling waves of democratic violence, — 
all things sacred were laid prostrate, the decencies of social life 
no longer sheltered the weak and helpless, — the sanctities of 
domestic privacy were rifled, and all was madness, confusion 
and blood. God has spared for a season, and reinstated in an- 
other opportunity to hear and repent, that guilty nation: and 
he has warned us! Will England take warning? 

Oh, my dear Brethren, this is no question of party politics. 
All parties are alike guilty in the sight of God, taken in their 
individual characters, as men count parties — all are sabbath- 
breakers, — all are covetous together; all seeking their own, 
and not the things of Christ. They are charging the gathering 
cloud with additional sulphureous matter, to spread wider 
desolation when it bursts. A stream of wickedness is going 
up: day by day, and sabbath after sabbath it cries to God for 
vengeance, and God is still patient. Christian Brethren, let 
your hearts' affection and earnest prayers be with the Lord, 
and be not afraid. Let not your heart be troubled. The wide- 
spread terror need have no terror for you. The destroyer 
shall not hurt you; for when these things come to pass, — when 
authority has no longer its stability, nor the church its respect: 
when the ministers of the church, the ambassadors for Jesus, 
shall be despised and rejected, — when outrageous violence 
begins to break down the mounds that hold as yet its tumul- 
tuous waves in obedience to that injunction which God has 
19 



56 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

placed on them, — "thus far shall ye go and no further," — 
when they do go further, and rise and shake the basis of au- 
thority in every shape, whether of monarchy or mixed govern- 
ment — when laws are no longer respected — when might, 
physical, brutal might, shall usurp the place of right — then, 
in the midst of all, — in the midst of this desperate, this dread- 
ful confusion, — when all that is tender and affectionate in the 
human heart, is liable to be rent and torn by the unprincipled 
violence of ruthless ruffianism, — we can look to God, and know 
that Jesus, who rides on the whirlwind and directs the storm, 
is ours, — he is our Friend, our Father, our God, — that he loves 
us dearly, — better than we can love ourselves, — that he loves 
our wives, our children, and will watch over those whom we 
cannot protect. Oh, my Brethren, put confidence in God, for 
this is peace, and nothing but this is peace: "then shalt thou 
lie down," says the wise man, "and sleep, and thy sleep shall 
be sweet. Thou shalt not fear violence, for thy heart is fixed, 
trusting in the Lord." Then when these things begin to 
thicken, — when the cloud grows blacker, and appears ready to 
burst in overwhelming horrors, then look up; — for in that open- 
ing cloud your Lord shall come. In the fire, the whirlwind, 
and the tempest, in the crashing of all authority, deputed from 
the Lord, shall he himself appear; he shall resume his own 
authority, and the kingdoms of the earth become the kingdoms 
of the Lord and of his Christ; and he shall break his enemies 
as a potter's vessel under a rod of iron, and establish the go- 
vernment, the righteous and absolute sovereignty of his saints 
for ever. 

It was when the world, in all the boasted pride of human 
learning, and all the embellishments of human literature and 
art, was nevertheless filling up the measure of human sin; and 
when wide-spread idolatry, and grovelling, sensual indulgence 
ruled over the nations, even in the most favoured seats of in- 
tellectual cultivation and social refinement, — it was then, that 
Jesus came, a saviour of sinners; and when the world shall 
bear the same aspect towards authority as it then did towards 
holiness, — when it shall be as impatient of rule as it was then of 
virtue, — when the peculiar characteristic of nations shall be re- 
bellion — then shall the Lord come as the legitimate, the all- 
mighty, the irresistible sovereign. "The Son of Man shall come 
in clouds, with power and great glory. 9 ' Then shall the visita- 
tions be poured out, and the curses shall come upon the earth, 
as it is described in the 6th chapter of Revelations, the 12th 
verse: "I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, 
there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as 
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 57 

of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a figtree casteth her un- 
timely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind: and the 
heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and 
every mountain and island were moved out of their places." 
"Every mountain," every great state; "and every island," 
every petty state, and all the great men of the earth merged in 
the waves of the destroying tumult; "and every bondman and 
every freeman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of 
the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on 
us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, 
and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his 
wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" You observe 
not the multitudes only, as distinguished from the rulers, — but 
all together fall under the judgment, — the kings, the great men, 
the rich men, the chief captains and the mighty men, as well 
as bond and free; altogether, because all have sinned, — the 
rulers in abusing their authority to licentiousness, encouraging 
and fostering things that should never have been introduced; 
or if introduced, that ought, when detected, at once to have 
been amended; and the people in rising up in the pride of 
their own strength, the boasted might of numbers; as if the 
essence of authority were in them, instead of being in the God 
who made them. On the one side is abused authority, on the 
other abused liberty. All will fall, and there is no security 
but to the members of Ciirist. \Oh, my brethren, there is yet 
a time to escape, — there is time for reconciliation; there is 
time to leave the vortex of a wicked world and join the church 
of God; to give up the society and the cause of those who are 
neglecting his word, breaking his sabbaths, violating his com- 
mandments; who talk little about his coming, and care still 
less. Oh, break off from them, and though you should be 
obliged to transact business, »:id even to sit side by side with 
them, let it be but the outside of you that is there; keep the 
inner part for the Lord, and the society of the Lord's people. 
Be on the Lord's side resolutely. Be not ashamed to confess 
him now. Now is the time to confess him, while he is absent, 
and to confess him even in the rebels' camp. Now is the 
time, while there is risk: now when it costs something to pro- 
fess in sincerity and In truth. Every one will be ready to 
confess a triumphant king: but when to confess him is to ex- 
pose yourselves to danger and to contempt, then it is, that con- 
fession denotes honesty of attachment. Hear himself: Who- 
soever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also, before my 
Father which is in heaven. And whosoever shall be ashamed of me 
and of my zvords, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him, 



53 SERMONS ON THE SECONN ADVENT 

also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory 
of his Father, with the holy angels* 

Men and Brethren, now while waiting for the Lord's com- 
ing, believe his word, submit to his authority, honour his laws, 
prostrate yourselves before his throne, embracing his cross. 
Now is the time, all sinners as you are: "Though your sins 
be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be 
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 5 ' Now he is on the 
mercy-seat — his blood cleanseth from all sin. He has not yet 
girded the sword upon his thigh to take vengeance. He yet 
waits in mercy, imploring his enemies to lay down their arms 
and be his friends. Oh! come, weary and heavy laden with 
sin, instead of vain attempts to reconcile yourselves to your 
burden, or to stifle all consciousness of it; come and cast it upon 
him. Now is the time: be ye reconciled. He waits to be 
gracious, and the time is short; no one can tell at what mo- 
ment the voice of exhortation and of love, may be for ever 
silenced. Do you, indeed, believe and trust in the Lord Jesus, 
and in him alone. I beseech you, do not deceive yourselves. 
There is a state of mind most destructive and most common, 
where the heart is putting its real confidence in second causes, 
and secretly expecting more safety from some political change, 
than from trusting in Christ himself. Oh, that is to be politi- 
cal indeed, and in the worst sense: but to put undivided confi- 
dence in the Lord for protection here, as well as salvation 
hereafter, is to be, not political, but truly religious: while 
others, who disclaim politics in words, are yet leaning on the 
measures of men in their hearts, for all their expectations of 
safety for themselves, and their families, and their property. 

This is not only a time for reconciliation, that the ungodly 
may come and give themselves up to the Lord, but a time of 
instruction also, that you may grow more in the knowledge of 
your Lord, learn more of the principles of his kingdom, be 
more conformed to them; that,*understanding more and more 
what he shall be, and what he shall do, you may be more and 
more moulded into the character of citizens and subjects of that 
kingdom. Learn more of him; and while you are getting more 
of that instruction, both by reading the Scriptures and by re- 
marking the movements of God's providence over the world, 
seek to imbibe more deeply those principles of willing submis- 
sion to authority, which, however now decried, must eventually 
triumph. Seek to become more conformed to his mind, that 
you may really and instinctively delight in the sound of his 
chariot wheels; for that sound will be the sound of joy un- 

* Matt. x. 32. Mark viii. 38. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 59 

speakable, and full of glory to every emancipated and waiting 
soul: to every penitent and confiding believer in the Lord 
Jesus. Amen. 



SERMON III. 

The City of Confusion to be Destroyed at the Second 
Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Isaiah xxv. 2. — "For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defeneed city a 
ruin; a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built." 

This chapter contains a song of praise to the God of Israel, 
in reference to the events which were predicted in the preced- 
ing chapter. These generally were, the destruction of the city 
of confusion, mentioned in the 10th verse, "the city of confu- 
sion is broken down;" the preservation of a chosen people, "as 
the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done," — mentioned 
in the 13th verse; and the reigning of the Lord of Hosts, "in 
mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients glo- 
riously," — distinctly declared in the last verse. In the midst 
of these predictions, the Prophet, as if arrested by the over- 
whelming view of the majesty, faithfulness, and grace of God, 
breaks off the line of his direct prophetic discourse, and gives 
utterance to a burst of admiring praise. "0 Lord," he ex- 
claims, at the opening of this chapter, "thou art my God: I 
will exalt thee, I will praise thy name, for thou hast done 
wonderful things: thy counsels of old are faithfulness and 
truth." As if, in the contemplation of the performance of the 
things which he had predicted, he had said, "Thy purposes, 
God, fore-ordained in thyself, and declared of old by the fathers, 
thou hast now accomplished with infinite faithfulness and truth. 
These are wonderful things: I will praise thee, I will exalt 
thee. Thou art my God, my soul delights in such a God as 
thou art." He then proceeds to recapitulate the things he had 
prophecied of. "For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a 
defeneed city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city: it shall 
never be built." 

In order to make the subject as clear and simple as possible, 
I must remind you that the great city or kingdom of Babylon, 
during the pride of her power and authority, exercised it in the 
most tyrannical manner, greatly to oppress the children of 
Israel. In the days of Isaiah, the kingdom of Babylon had not 
risen into notice. The Assyrian was then the leading empire, 
19* 



50 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

and it was not till a considerable period after the Prophet's 
death, that Babylon assumed the pre-eminence. It was at its 
height of glory under Nebuchadnezzar. Isaiah lived and pro- 
phecied chiefly in the time of Hezekiah; and Hezekiah lived 
120 years before the time of Nebuchadnezzar. But Isaiah, 
though living so long antecedent to the glory of Babylon, was 
inspired by God to speak of her. He foretold her luxury, her 
tyranny, her oppression of Israel, and her desolation and ruin. 
You find this plainly set forth in the 13th chapter. After de- 
scribing even by name the power that would destroy Babylon, 
— the Medes, — he says at the 19th verse, "And Babylon, the 
glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, 
shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It 
shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from gene- 
ration to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, 
neither shall the shepherds make their fold there: But wild 
beasts of the deserts shall lie there; and their houses shall be 
full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs 
shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry 
in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: 
and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be pro- 
longed. J ' This he combines with the deliverance of Israel, in 
the beginning of the next chapter. "For the Lord will have 
mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in 
their own land." Here is the reason, "The Lord will yet 
choose Israel." He depicts the glory of Babylon, and the 
captivity of Israel, — the desolation of Babylon, and the restor- 
ing of Israel, all to happen so many years after the Prophet's 
death. "And the people shall take them and bring them to 
their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the 
land of the Lord for servants and bondmaids, and they shall 
take them captives whose captives they were; and they shall 
rule over their oppressors. And it shall come to pass in that 
day, that the Lord shall give thee rest" — that is Israel — "from 
thy sorrow and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage 
wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this 
proverb against the King of Babylon, and say, How hath the 
oppressor ceased, — the golden city ceased;" — the city made a 
heap, — the defenced city a ruin; — "the Lord hath broken the 
staff of the wicked and the sceptre of the rulers." The same 
subject is declared with equal plainness in the 47th chapter: 
"Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon, 
sit on the ground;" — she is called a virgin because she had 
never suffered invasion, nor had her power been broken by any 
adversary: — "Take the millstones and grind meal; uncover thy 
locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Q\ 

Thy nakedness shallbe uncovered, — yea, thy shame shall be seen," — 
as a bearer of burdens, a grinder of meal, the most degrading 
of employments. Then there were only hand-mills. It was 
not till the decline of the Roman republic, immediately before 
the age of Augustus, that water-mills were known; and wind- 
mills were not introduced until a much later period. Grinding 
was, therefore, done by hand, and it was the occupation of the 
vilest among the slaves. This was the task to which Samson 
was put by the Philistines. "Sit thou silent," he continues, 
"and get thee into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou 
shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms." Now Mark the 
6 th verse: I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inherit- 
ance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst show them no 
mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke." God 
gave Israel into the hand of Babylon to be chastised, but she 
shewed her no mercy. Indulging her tyrannous spirit, she laid 
her hand very heavily on the Lord's ancient people, beloved 
for their father's sake. "And thou" — that is, Babylon, — 
"saidst, I shall be a lady for ever; so that thou didst not lay these 
things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it." 

I wish to shew you a few other plain prophecies bearing 
upon this subject, before I come more closely to the interpre- 
tation of our text. Take the 50th and 51st chapters of Jere- 
miah. At the 17th verse of the former it is said, < 'Israel is a 
scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away. First the 
kings of Assyria have devoured him, and last this Nebuchad- 
nezzar, king of Babylon hath broken his bones. Therefore, 
thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will 
punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished 
the king of Assyria. And I will bring Israel again to his 
habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and 
his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead." 
Again, in the 51st chapter, at the 35th verse: "The violence 
done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant 
of Zion say; and, My blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, 
shall Jerusalem say. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, 
I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will 
dry up her sea, and make her springs dry." Here is an allu- 
sion to the sea of Babylon, the great river Euphrates running 
through her: and God put it into the heart of Cyrus to turn 
the channel, to draw off the waters, and to march his army in 
the night through the bed of the river into the city, and take 
it. Thus God dried up the sea, by turning her channel else- 
where, through the instrumentality of the Medes and Persians. 
"1 will dry tip her sea, and make her springs dry. And Babylon 
shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, 
and an hissing, without an inhabitant. 



(32 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

With the assistance of these clear prophecies we shall have 
light on the beautiful passage of our text, where the prophet 
exclaims to God, in the anticipation of the accomplishment of 
his work, the judgment of Babylon, and the deliverance of 
Israel. "For thou hast made of a defenced city an heap, — that 
proud city, Babylon, the city of the oppressor, the golden city, 
that said she would be a lady for ever, and laid her yoke 
very heavily on thy people, Israel; thou hast made of the city 
an heap, — of a defe?iced city a ruin; a palace of strangers" — a 
place of much celebrity, visitors from all quarters flocking to 
behold her glory, her beauty, and her magnitude — "to be no city: 
it shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify 
thee,'' — they shall give God glory in their ruin; as he said con- 
cerning the Egyptians when he overthrew them: "I will get 
me honour upon Pharoah and upon his horsemen; so he got 
honour upon the Babylonians when he overthrew them, and 
the strong people were forced to glorify him in their destruc- 
tion: "the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee." Then 
follows his protection of Israel, again combined with his de- 
struction of Babylon. "For thou hast been a strength to the poor, 
a strength to the needy in his distress." This was his people, 
oppressed and overwhelmed by the Babylonish power: they 
asked her to sing one of the Lord's songs, when she sat by the 
rivers weeping, and her harp hanging on the willows, they said, 
"Come, sing one of the Lord's songs for us," making a mock 
of her distress. "How can we," she replied, "sing the Lord's 
song in a strange land?" But the Lord was protecting her 
still: "Thou hast been a strength to the needy in his distress, a re- 
fuge from the storm, a shelter from the heat, when the blast of the 
terrible ones is as a storm against the7valL 19 The fury of Babylon 
is represented as a storm raging against a wall, — the Lord's 
kind protection over Israel as a refuge from the storm, afford- 
ing a gracious assurance of hope and safety, notwithstanding 
the inveterate enmity, and the unrestrained and ungovernable 
tyranny of the Babylonish conquerors. "Thou shall bring 
down the noise of strangers as the heat in a dry place, even the heat 
with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be 
brought low." This is the same subject. The noise of the 
tyrant shall fall upon Israel tempered by the hand of God, as 
the heat of the sun falls tempered by the cloud, softened and 
abated of its burning vigour. The threatenings of Babylon 
shall be prevented falling with full force on Israel, — the heat 
should be brought down under the shadow of a cloud. The 
image is very beautiful. She should not be altogether de- 
livered from the threatenings, but they should fall in a manner 
mitigated and broken. Not that her oppressors so intended 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 63 

it: they intended only her ruin. But God interposed a cloud, 
and its shadow abated the heat of their wrath. 

Now if this were the whole of the prophecy we might be 
induced to suppose that it had been entirely fulfilled by the 
destruction of Babylon literally, and the restoration of the 
Jews from the Babylonish captivity. That destruction took 
place 200 years after Isaiah, under Cyrus, by means of a mix- 
ed army of Medes and Persians; and immediately on getting 
the possession of the kingdom, he made proclamation that such 
of the Jews as chose, might return to their own land. But 
the Prophet does not end here: there follow events for which 
he gives praise in the next verses, and concerning which, we 
have an inspired comment, which enables us to feel assured 
that we possess true light upon the whole strain of this pro- 
phecy. "And on this mountain" — the mountain already men- 
tioned in chapter 24, verse 23, before the Prophet burst forth 
in his song, — the mount Zion, wherein the Lord shall then be 
reigning — "On this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all 
people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees; of fat things 
full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will de- 
stroy in this mountain the face of the covering, — or covering of 
the face, the blind from the face of all people, the veil, another 
name for the covering of the face — "cast over all people and the 
veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in 
victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces: 
and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the 
earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that 
day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save 
us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and 
rejoice in his salvation." Now what events are these, and when 
have they been, or shall they be fulfilled? I said we have an 
inspired comment upon the subject: it is quoted by St. Paul, 
who tells us distinctly when it shall come to pass. I allude to 
the opening of the 8th verse. "He will swallozv up death in 
victory." In the 15th chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinth- 
ians, the 54th verse, we read thus: "So when this corruptible 
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on 
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is 
written, Death is swallowed up in victory." "He will swallow 
up death in victory," saith the Prophet. When? The Apostle's 
answer is: When this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
and this corruptible incorruption. And when is that? At the 
52nd verse he tells us, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the 
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we," — we, in opposi- 
tion to the dead — we who are alive, and remain on the earth 



54 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

at that moment — "we shall be changed." He made the same 
distinction in the 51st verse: "we shall not all sleep," — not all 
die, or sleep in Jesus, — "but we shall all be changed," — whe- 
ther sleeping or waking: "the dead shall be raised incorrupti- 
ble, and we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on 
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality;" and 
when this shall be done — the dead raised incorruptible, and 
we that are alive changed — "then shall be brought to pass the 
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 
Now, when is this? You will learn by referring to the 23d 
verse: "Every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits;" 
— who hath already put on immortality — "afterward they that 
are Christ's at his coming; then cometh the end,"* that is, the 
end of this dispensation — of our Lord's present rule — of the 
period for which he is sitting at the right hand of God: "The 
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until" — 
when? — "until thine enemies shall be made thy footstool." When 
all are put down, then is the end, when thou wilt leave my 
right hand, and sit on thine own throne. That is the end here 
intended: when he shall have delivered up the kingdom which 
he at present enjoys, — where he wields the authority, the uni- 
versal kingdom of God, — the invisible kingdom of providence. 
He has now overcome and sat down on the Father's throne: 
when all things shall be subdued to him, he will leave that, and 
sit down upon his own,t reigning in mount Zion and in Jeru- 
salem: "when he hath put down all rule, and all authority and 
power, for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under 
his feet." So it is said, "Sit thou on my right hand until I 
make thine enemies thy footstool." "The last enemy that 
shall be destroyed is death." But how is he an enemy? Only 
as applied to the members of Christ's body. Death, as it re- 
gards his enemies, is his friend — his messenger — his agent; 
but as it regards the members of his body, it is his enemy, 
holding them in subjection. "The last enemy that shall be 
destroyed is death, for God hath put all things under Christ's feet; 
only Christ now waits on the throne of the Father's kingdom, 
till the time shall come for putting an end to that last enemy 
of his, which is death. Of course, when it is said that all things 
are put under Christ, God manifest in the flesh — the invisible 
Jehovah is excepted. And when the Lord Jesus shall (in the 
exercise of his present almighty authority on the Father's 
throne) have subdued all things unto himself, then shall he be 

* The original expressions are exactly rendered by our words afterwards 
•axidithen. First Christ himself, afterwards (s^s/t*) they that are Christ's at 
his coming, then {i'mt) the end, &c. 

t Rev. iii. 21. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 55 

prepared to leave the Father's throne, and set up his own 
kingdom upon the earth as the second Adam; himself, in 
manifested manhood, subject to God, who hath thus put all 
things in subjection to the glorified Man, that the invisible 
Jehovah may be, all in all, the acknowledged head of him who 
is the constituted head of all things; for the head of all crea- 
tion is Christ, and the head of Christ is the invisible Jehovah 
in Trinity. It is, then, when the name Jesus shall cease to 
be at the Father's right hand, and shall have returned to this 
earth in like manner as he went away; and when the resurrec- 
tion of the members of Jesus shall have taken place, — then 
shall this saying be fulfilled, "Death is swallowed up in vic- 
tory," and then this prophecy of Isaiah shall be completed. 

This mode, my Brethren, of viewing this passage of the 15th 
chapter of Corinthians, which is felt to be difficult,* harmo- 
nizes well with the context, for it makes the whole strain, to 
the 28th verse, to proclaim the resurrection of the saints; it 
makes it to have for its object the declaration of the coming of 
the Lord at the end of the present dispensation, and of the 
manifestation of his members, delivered from death. So that 
what follows is found strictly in place: "Else what shall they do 
7vhich are baptised for the dead, if the dead rise not at alii Why are 
they then baptised for the dead, and why stand we in jeopardy every 
hour? 

But to return to the prophecy. iC And in this mountain shall 
the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast 
of wines on the lees; of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the 
lees well refined." It is not denied that the glad tidings of salva- 
tion by Jesus Christ, as now proclaimed in the preaching of the 
Gospel, supply a spiritual feast, to which this language may most 
appropriately be adapted. Blessed indeed are they who taste, 
by faith, that the Lord is gracious. Rich and precious beyond 
expression is the feast of his pardoning and sympathising love 
to every quickened sinner. The spouse in the Canticles pro- 
claims it to be better than wine, and the Psalmist expatiates upon 
its sweetness as exceeding that of honey and the honeycomb. 
But in contemplating this prophecy, and anticipating its fulfil- 
ment at the period pointed out by the Apostle, we are com- 
pelled to look beyond the announcements of the Gospel, and 
• the spiritual richness of Christain experience, for the full inter- 
pretation of this verse. 

It is the reiterated testimony of Scripture, that when Israel 
shall be restored, the word of the Lord shall go forth from 
mount Zion, and the law from Jerusalem. The waters of life 

* But many millennarians explain it differently — and this interpretation of 
the passage is not essential to their general views. 



56 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

shall go forth and heal the nations, and ten men out of every 
nation shall lay hold of the skirt of a Jew at that time and say, 
"We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with 
you:" and all shall go to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles, 
and see the Lord of Hosts manifested in the human nature of 
Jesus reigning in mount Zion. # This is the feast that shall be 
made on the mountain on that day, for all people, — of which 
the Gospel feast in the hearts of the elect is the type and 
earnest. 

But with respect to Babylon, I must again claim your atten- 
tion for a few moments, in order to make the early part of this 
subject still more clear. During the Old Testament dispensa- 
tion, the people of God wore a strictly national aspect. In 
habits, manners, worship, and residence, they were totally 
different from all other nations — they occupied outwardly and 
manifestly a distinct country. The great and successful per- 
secutors and oppressors of the people of God wore also a 
national aspect. First they were the Egyptians, then the 
Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the 
Grecians, and subsequently the Romans. But among them all 
Babylon was pre-eminent:! so much so, as to give a general 
name to the whole persecuting power. Thus, as we have seen, 
she was not only spoken of by the prophets, living during the 
period of her power and tyranny, but in anticipation by those 
who lived long before her glory commenced. 

Under the New Testament dispensation the people of God 
wear a two-fold aspect, national and spiritual, — national as re- 
gards their outward privileges, spiritual as regards their reli- 
gious character; the great oppressor, the persecutor, the suc- 
cessful opponent of the people of God, wears, in like manner, 
a two-fold aspect, — national and anti-spiritual, — national, in 
opposition to their outward privileges, to their properties, and 
even their lives; and anti-spiritual, in her deadly hostility to 
the truth, the life and soul of the church of God. The per- 
fection of this hostility to outward privilege and spiritual truth, 
is found in the Romish system, which is a mixture of worldly 
policy and anti-scriptural falsehood. This applies not merely 
to the outward letter of that system. The mischief is at work 
in some degree or modification wherever there is worldly 
pride, hatred of the truth, persecution for the truth's sake, in- ' 
tolerance, luxury, heedlessness about eternity, — wherever self 
is worshipped instead of God, — wherever there is the spirit 
that was in Babylon, prompting her to say, "I am a lady of 

* Isaiah ii. 2—4. Zech. viii. 20—23, and xiv. 16. 

t Its king was the head of gold of the image, (Dan. ii. 31 — 38,) and as being 
the principal or leading kingdom, may properly give its name to the whole. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 57 

kingdoms, and I shall be a lady for ever,'-' — wherever this 
usurps the heart individually, or the authority nationally, there 
is the virus [or venom] of the Babylonish system: but the per- 
fection of that system is found specially at Rome; and there- 
fore we find the persecutor of the people of God is set forth 
under the New Testament, by the name of Babylon, and by 
the description of a city standing on seven hills, which is a de- 
scription of Rome. The language of St. John in the Revela- 
tions, upon this subject, is of almost historical plainness. The 
name of Babylon has been only transferred from the Old Testa- 
ment, as a standing title, descriptive of the persecutors of the 
people of God, just as Caesar was for the Roman emperors. It 
was a symbol, a patronymic for all persecutors; and so we find 
them denominated by that title hundreds of years after the 
literal Babylon was no more. 

The language of the Old Testament, also, applied to the 
literal Babylon, furnished a mode of speech which was adopted 
by the Apostles under the New, to set forth the anti-spiritual 
oppressors of the people of God under the present dispensa- 
tion: so that the language applied to the literal Babylon is now 
transferable to the Romish system, wherever found; that is, 
to all opposers, neglecters, and scorners of the truth and the 
people of God; while the language applied to the literal Israel, 
continues applicable to that nation still beloved for the father's 
sake, and at the same time becomes transferable to the spiritual 
Israel, the chosen of God gathered out of every kindred, and 
nation, and tongue, and people, and grafted into Israel's olive 
tree. 

With these observations before us, the parallel between the 
prophecy in this and the following chapter, and that in St. 
John, is most striking. The events predicted by the Prophet, 
and grouped together for synchronical fulfilment, are — 1. The 
destruction of Babylon, as we have seen in our text, and more 
largely in the 24th chapter. 2. The coming of the Lord: 
"Behold the Lord cometh out of his place, to punish the in- 
habitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall 
disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." In 
connection with this he says: 3. "In that day the Lord with 
his sore, and great, and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, 
the piercing serpent, even Leviathan, that crooked serpent, 
and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." These are 
the Scriptural appellations for Satan. A third event, there- 
fore, here predicted, is the peculiar punishment of the devil at 
that time. And, 4, the resurrection of the people of God; 
"he will swallow up death in victory." 

Now turn and look at the terribly convincing parallel, in 
20 



6g SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

the 18th, 19th, and the beginning of the 20th chapters of 
Revelations. 1. Does the Prophet say the city shall be made 
a heap? Hear what the Apostle says: "Babylon the great is 
fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the 
hold of every foul beast, and the cage of every unclean and 
hateful bird." He goes on to describe her, calling the people 
of God to come out; and says, at the 7th verse, "How much 
she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much tor- 
ment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a 
queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore 
shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and 
famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is 
the Lord that judgeth her. And the kings of the earth who 
have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, 
shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the 
smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her tor- 
ment, saying, Alas! alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty 
city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." And again, in 
the 20th verse: "Rejoice over her, thou heaven and ye holy 
apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. And 
a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast 
it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city 
Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. 
And the voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and 
trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no crafts- 
man, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in 
thee; and the sound of the millstone shall be heard no more at 
all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all 
in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall 
be heard no more at all in thee; for thy merchants were the 
great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations 
deceived." Mark what was found in her: "In her was found 
the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain 
upon the earth." The Assyrian, the Babylonian, and the 
Persian had shed the blood of the prophets, and since then, 
Rome has been drunk with the blood of the saints. Such is 
the parallel in the Apocalypse of the destructipn of Babylon, 
as set forth in the prophecy. 

2. Now look at the parallel to the declaration of the Lord's 
coming. Does the prophet say, behold the Lord cometh out 
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth? Read what 
the Apostle says. Turn to the 19th chapter, the 11th verse: 
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse; and he 
that sat upon him was called Faithful and True; and in righteous- 
ness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame 
of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 69 

written, that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed 
with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The 
Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven follow- 
ed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with 
it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a 
rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness 
and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and 
on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD 
OF LORDS: And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he 
cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the 
midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto 
the supper of the great God. That ye may eat the flesh of 
kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, 
and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and 
the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and 
great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, 
and their armies, gathered together to make war against him 
that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast 
was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought mira- 
cles before him, with which he deceived them that had receiv- 
ed the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image." 
These expressions describe the persecutors in their last un- 
natural coalition; superstition and infidelity (like Herod and 
Pontius Pilate) making common cause against Jesus. Popery 
and liberalism uniting their uncongenial ranks, if so be they 
may succeed in sweeping from the face of the earth the church 
of Christ, the witnesses for the living God. But our God 
shall come, and not any longer keep silence, and both sections 
of persecutors shall be cast alive into the lake of fire. At the 
Lord's coming the wicked shall not enjoy any respite from 
bodily suffering, (as they do who die in the meantime,) but 
shall go down alive, body and soul into the lake of fire, as the 
righteous shall be caught up, body and soul, to meet their Lord 
in the air: "They both were cast alive into a lake of Jire burning 
with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him 
that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth; 
and all the fowls were filed with their flesh. 

3. The Prophet also predicted a special chastisement upon 
Satan at that time. Mark what the Apostle says, at the be- 
ginning of the 20th chapter: "And I saw an angel come down 
from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great 
chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old 
serpent, which is the devil, and satan, and bound him a thou- 
sand years; and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him 
up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations 
no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after 



70 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

that he must be loose a little season." There is a needs-be 
here. It must be so; but it shall only be for a little season. 

4. Does the Prophet announce the resurrection of the church, 
saying, I will swallow up death in victory? Hear what the 
Apostle says: "And I saw the souls of them that were be- 
headed for the ivitness of Jesus and for the ivord of God, and 
which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, 
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in 
their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thou- 
sand years." "This is the first resurrection" — the swallow- 
ing up of death in victory. It is in vain to say that because 
souls are mentioned here, therefore it does not mean the re- 
surrection of the body. The word soul is often put for the 
whole man,- — as where we read of so many thousand souls 
coming up out of Egypt; and the crew of a vessel consisting 
of so many souls; and similar expressions without number. 
And if it be still objected that the soul exclusively is meant, 
we answer that such an interpretation involves an absurdity, 
for it is to say that the soul lived again, though the soul can 
never die. Therefore it must mean the whole man, and the 
statement is, that the part which did die, lived again, which is 
called the first resurrection. 

How striking is the parallel! The destruction of Babylon, 
— the preservation of a people in the midst of the ruin, as the 
gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done, — the coming of 
the Lord out of his place to punish the earth, — the binding of 
Satan, and the resurrection of the people of God. These the 
prophets have from the beginning set forth in different sorts of 
language, and under the New Testament the same great truths 
are enforced, — God's long-suffering love, the trial of his people 
and the temporary triumph of their adversaries, the coming of 
Jesus as the beginning of the everlasting reward of the righteous, 
and the utter ruin of the ungodly. 

Now what is all this in its application to you? First of all, 
it explains the Scriptures to you, — and this is a view which 
you should highly prize. By all the value which you set on 
your Christian experience — for I speak to you who know and 
love the Lord Jesus — by all the value you set on the experi- 
ence of his love, you ought highly to prize whatever ex- 
plains the word of God. The more you know of that, the 
more solid and stable will your principles and your judgment 
be. Those who love the excitement of their feelings rather 
than the instruction of their understandings, are like the 
drinkers of cordials as compared with the eaters of bread. 

Again, in the way of experience, here is a warning against 
having part or lot in the Babylonish or Roman system. Come 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 7 J 

out of her, my people, saith the Lord, that ye be not partakers 
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. You have, 
in one sense, separated from much that is externally wicked: 
you are no longer partakers in her idolatries — her open and 
undisguised idolatry in the worship of saints and angels: you 
are no longer partakers in the blasphemy of her masses, — the 
folly and mummery of her beads, her crucifixes, scapulars, 
creeds, and idols. But these are the outside only, and many 
protest against them, who are still part and parcel of the sys- 
tem; — still in the very heart of the corruption, full of worldly 
pride, vanity, and self-conceit. This is the real idolatry — in- 
difference to the truth, — disregard of eternity — self-compla- 
cency; the spirit that says, "I am a lady, and I shall be a lady 
for ever." — Satisfaction with personal possessions and enjoy- 
ments — neglect of God's cause on earth, — carelessness about 
sin, unless hurtful to your credit in the world, — covetousness 
of the enjoyments of life, leading to luxury and licentiousness, 
— ignorance, blindness, absorbing engrossment in the pursuit 
of worldly things, — the merchandise of gold and silver, and 
precious stones. Oh! my Brethren, except your heart be de- 
voted to God, except you have a desire to prosecute all your 
undertakings, not for the sake of self, but for the glory of God; 
attending to them with diligence, and cheerfulness, and prudence, 
with honesty of purpose, with truth on your lips and integrity in 
your hearts; unless you are thus God's in reality as well as in 
profession, you have only protested against the outworks of 
Popery, while yet you hug the accursed thing to your souls, 
and hide the Babylonish wedge in your stuff. Bear with this 
freedom, 1 beseech you: for let me ask you if the world, — if 
this town, — if this congregation is fit for the coming of Christ? 
Oh! consider, ye that forget God, lest he tear you to pieces, 
and there be none to deliver! Honour him. How? I will 
tell you. Honour him with the first fruits of your increase. 
Increase is the grand object on which men set their thoughts. 
Honour him with it. Let every gain be consecrated to God, 
by a thank-offering. Learn that, except you honour him with 
your increase, you honour your increase above him, — setting 
your heart upon it to gratify self; to gratify your appetites by 
present luxury, or your pride by leaving large legacies. Seek 
to advance, as far as lies in you, the cause of God; strengthen 
the hands of those who desire to spread the knowledge of God 
at home, and to carry the light of the Gospel to the dark and 
dismal abodes of ignorance and superstition over all the face 
of the earth. See how busy the agents of the devil are: and 
if they can prosecute their work with so much ardour amidst 
all the other avocations of the world, surely you may find op- 
20* 



72 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

portunities for prosecuting the work of God, without the least 
disarrangement of your ordinary business. Secret willing- 
ness of heart is fertile in expedients, according to the true pro- 
verb, "where there is a will there is a way." Is it not a duty 
in stewards to be faithful? Yea; and a most solemn duty. 
And how, then, shall we be faithful to our divine Master, if, 
having received opportunities and means, to be applied for the 
benefit of our fellow-men, and for the doing of the Lord's 
work in the earth, we appropriate the whole of those resources 
to our own use, to the gratification of our senses, the indulgence 
of our sloth, or the feeding of our pride. 

Now bear the word of exhortation, and be assured, that 
whatever delusions the world may supply, and however de- 
ceitful your hearts may be, in arguing upon the distance and 
the uncertainty of the event of Christ's coming — be assured 
that to us, individually, the day must be fast approaching: the 
time is short — the world is fading from you at every step — 
diseases are at hand — death is on every side — and there is but 
one ground, one hope of safety, — Be ready. Jesus is the way. 

Take no exception, by brethren, at this plain dealing. It is 
your place to pay attention to the word of God, and woe unto 
me if I speak it not so far as he has taught it to me. Take no 
exception, therefore, against me, but take exception against 
yourselves, for being in such a state that the telling of the 
truth wounds you. Repent, and believe the gospel; for to all 
who repent and believe, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ 
will be a joyful and glorious theme of praise, and they shall 
join our Prophet, in the chapter before us, in singing with one 
enraptured voice, "Lo! this is our God,' we have waited for 
him, and he will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for 
him; we will rejoice and be glad in his salvation!" 



SERMON IV. 

The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, in its con- 
nection with the present dispersion and coming resto- 
ration of the Jewish people. 

Rom. xi. 25 — 29. "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of 
this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in 
part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 

"And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion 
the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 

"For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 

"As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching 
the election, they are beloved for the father's sake. 

"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 73 

The second coming of our Lord is announced to us in the 
Holy Scriptures, in connection with four leading themes which 
embrace the whole subject. 1. The present dispersion and 
coming restoration of the Jewish people. 2. The present suf- 
fering and coming glory of the elect church. 3. The present 
proud prosperity, and coming utter destruction of ungodly 
men. And 4. The present groaning misery, and the coming 
renovation unto blessedness of the whole earth. 

It is to the first of these topics, that I desire to call your at- 
tention, my brethren, on the present occasion. 

In our text we learn that blindness, or rejection, in part, 
hath happened to Israel, only for a time, until an appointed 
season, (elsewhere called "the times of the Gentiles," shall be 
fulfilled. This interpretation of the passage harmonizes the 
apostle's meaning, with our Lord's statement in the 21st chap- 
ter of St. Luke, u Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, 
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Blindness in part, 
saith St. Paul, hath happened to Israel, until the fulness of the 
Gentile times, not persons, shall come in. Not persons, because 
to interpret this clause of persons would be to subvert the 
whole argument of the chapter: the drift of which is to prove, 
that as the fall of the Jews was the occasion of a blessing to 
the world, in opening a way for the preaching of the gospel 
among the nations: the diminishing of the Jews, as the Apostle 
expresses it, thus proving the riches of the Gentiles: much 
more the restoration of the Jews shall be life from the dead to 
the whole world. If, however, we interpret the clause before 
us to mean Gentile persons, and so understand the Apostle to 
say, that before Israel's return the fulness of Gentile persons, 
or in other words, all mankind, shall be come in; then to 
whom can Israel's return be life from the dead, seeing that all 
will be already alive before her return? 

Thus the integrity of the Apostle's argument, and the parallel 
statement of our Lord, compel us to conclude, that during the 
times of the Gentiles, or present dispensation, Israel is involv- 
ed in unbelief; but that then the whole nation shall be saved, 
for their Deliverer, or as it is written in Isaiah, the Redeemer 
shall come to Zion,* and God shall fulfil the promise of his 
covenant to them in taking away their sins. In the mean 
time, as concerning the Gospel which they have rejected, they 
are enemies, for the sake of you Gentile churches, to whom 
that Gospel is come: but in the end, as touching the purpose 
of God concerning that nation, and their selection from among 
the nations, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. The pro- 
mises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, concerning their 

* Isaiah lix. 20. 



74 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

descendants, considered nationally, shall assuredly be fulfilled; 
for the gifts and calling of God are sure, coming from Him, 
with whom there is no repentance, no change of mind, no 
variableness, neither shadow of turning. 

To see this subject in its full force, we must look back be- 
fore we look forward. Consider, therefore, 1. The light of 
Israel previous to Christ's first coming. 2. The darkness of 
Israel since her rejection of Christ. And 3. The predicted 
brilliancy and blessedness of Israel, at the second coming of 
her glorious Messiah. 

I. Before the first coming of the Lord Jesus the Jews were 
the sole depositaries upon earth of the saving knowledge of the 
true God. They were the chosen channel for the transmission 
of the promised seed, in whom all the nations of the earth 
should be blessed. And they were the main-spring of what 
may well be called the divine politics of the world. Truly, 
we may exclaim with the Prophet, that the nation of Israel has 
been wonderful from her beginning hitherto.* 

They were the sole depositaries upon earth, of the saving 
knowledge of the true God. In Jewry, saith the Psalmist, is 
God known, his name is great in Israel. And by the prophet 
Amos, thus spake the Lord of Hosts to the Jewish nation: You 
only have I known of all the families of the earth. There is, in- 
deed, a knowledge of God. from which no intelligent creature 
can be hid. His existence is known, being clearly seen by the 
things which he hath made; so that all mankind are without 
excuse. But the wonders of creation tell nothing of the moral 
character of the Creator, and it is in this alone that saving 
knowledge consists. This was confined to the Jews. All the 
other nations upon earth, with whatever degrees of clearness 
they may have known the existence of God the Creator, glo- 
rified him not as God, the moral governor; Neither were 
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their 
foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be 
wise, they became fools, and changed, the glory of the un- 
corruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, 
and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.^ 
With what animation does the prophet Isaiah expose the 
idolatry of the nations as contrasted w r ith the state of Israel. 
Isaiah xliii. 9, 10: Let all the nations be gathered together, 
and let the people be assembled: who among them can de- 
clare this and shew us former things? Let them bring forth 
their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, 
and say, It is truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, 
and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know 

* Isaiah xviii. t Rom. i. 21—23. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 75 

and believe me, and understand that I am he; before me 
there was no God formed; neither shall there be after me. 
And xliv. 9 and 19 — 22: They that make a graven image are 
all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not 
profit: and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor 
know; that they may be ashamed. Jind none considereth 
in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding 
to say, I have burnt part of it in the fire; yea, also, I have 
baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and 
eaten it; and shall I make the residue thereof an abomina- 
tion? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? Hefeedethon 
ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he can- 
not deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right 
hand? Remember these, O Jacob and Israel! for thou art 
my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant; O 
Israel! thou shall not be forgotten of me. I have blotted 
out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, 
thy sins; return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. 

St. Paul, in his sermon at Athens, informs us that God 
winked at that time of ignorance among the nations. Thus 
we see that the Jews alone were made acquainted with the 
true God, and bore to the world the relation of God's special 
witnesses. 

They were also the chosen channel for the transmission of 
the promised seed, in whom all the nations of the earth should 
be blessed. In this sense, most remarkably, salvation is, and 
has been, of the Jews. The fore-ordained seed of Abraham, to 
be transmitted from father to son, in the tribe of Judah, in the 
family of David; and in the fulness of time to be taken of the 
substance of a virgin of the house and lineage of David, and 
united to God in the person of the eternal Word — that seed 
was the shield of a fallen world. There was in the Jewish 
nation a citadel, rendered impregnable by the predestinating 
purpose of Jehovah. Satan, successful in all other lands, was 
forced to feel that there remained a spot upon earth, against 
which the gates of hell could not prevail; a standing witness 
of the sovereignty of Him who ruleth after the counsel of his 
own will, in heaven, earth, and hell; a solitary rose blooming 
in the midst of a wild howling wilderness, a specimen and an 
earnest (though a faint one) of what God could make the whole 
earth, of what the whole earth shall be made when the ap- 
pointed time shall come; a nation which contained a tribe, 
which contained a family, which contained the predestinated 
flesh of the God-Man, the Saviour of the world. 

Further, the Jewish nation formed the main spring of what 
may be called the divine politics of the world. For their 



76 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

sakes, kings and nations were raised up and cast down by the 
Lord of Hosts. Hear the philosophy of ancient Jewish history 
revealed by the Holy Ghost; hear, ye Gentiles? and be 
astonished at the loving-kindness of the God of Israel. His 
acts of terrific judgment upon Israel's enemies are enumerated 
in praise of his mercy: because Israel, to whom he was shew- 
ing mercy, was his Son, his first-born, higher than the kings 
of the earth. "0 give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: 
for his mercy endureth for ever. give thanks unto the 
God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. give thanks 
unto the LORD of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever. 
To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy en- 
dureth for ever. To him that by wisdom made the heavens: 
for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that stretcheth out 
the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever. 
To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for 
ever. The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for 
ever. The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy 
endureth for ever. To him that smote Egypt in their first- 
born: for his 'mercy endureth for ever: and brought out Israel 
from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever. With a 
strong hand and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy en- 
dureth for ever. To him which divideth the Red Sea into 
parts: for his mercy endureth for ever. And made Israel to 
pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever. 
But overthrew Pharoah and his host in the Red Sea: for his 
mercy endureth for ever. To him which led his people 
through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth for ever. 
To him which smote great kings: for his mercy endureth for 
ever: and slew famous kings: for his mercy endureth for ever: 
Sihon, king of the Amorites: for his mercy endureth for ever: 
and Og, the king of Bashan: for his mercy endureth for ever: 
and gave their land for an heritage: for his mercy endureth 
for ever: even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his 
mercy endureth for ever. Who remembered us in our low 
estate \ for his mercy endureth for ever: and hath redeemed us 
from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever. Who 
giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever. 
give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth 
for ever."* 

Hear, also, what the Lord saith to the king of Assyria: "0 
Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is 
mine indignation. Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when 
the LORD hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion, 
and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of 

* Psalm cxxxvi. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 77 

the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks."* Hear, 
also, what the LORD saith of Cyrus: "He is my shepherd, 
and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, 
thou shall be built; and to the temple, thy foundations shall be 
laid. Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose 
right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and 
I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two- 
leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut: I will go before 
thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in 
pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 
and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, hidden riches of 
secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which 
call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my 
servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee 
by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not 
known me. "f 

It is cheering, strengthening, confirming to the people of 
God, to know, that what the Jewish nation then was, in this 
respect, the Christian church is now; that our risen and as- 
cended Lord is head over all things for his church: % and that 
all the proceedings of modern statesmen are as directly under 
his control, and are made as constantly and infallibly subser- 
vient to the best interests of his chosen, as were the move- 
ments of Pharoah, Sennacherib, or Cyrus. This, my Brethren, 
we do know, on authority not to be gainsayed. And there 
has seldom, if ever, been a period in the history of the church, 
when this assurance was more needed than at present, for her 
Stability and peace. 

But to return. 

II. The king of Israel came, meek and lowly, sitting upon 
an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. All day long he stretched 
forth his hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, who 
would not come to him that they might have life. They had 
expected life without suffering, a crown without a cross, — to 
go straightforward to glory, as those who had never fallen: 
whereas God's pathway to glory, for a fallen creature, is 
through discipline and suffering. The suffering of Christ was 
the rock over which they fell. His humiliation — his degrada- 
tion — in the eyes of man, was the stumbling-block to Israel. 
He grew up as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. 
There was neither form nor comeliness in him — as the men of 
this world count comeliness — and when they saw him, they 
esteemed him not. Hence the complaint of the evangelical 
Prophet, Who hath believed our report? or, what is the same 
thing, since faith is of the operation of God, To whom hath the 

* Isaiah x. 5—12. t Isaiah xliv. 28. xlv. 1—4. t Ephes. i. 20—23. 



7g SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

arm of the Lord been revealed?* They rejected their Messiah. 
They crucified their King. So blind were they to their real 
glory, so fascinated with the things of this world, that they 
cried out in suicidal madness, We have no king but Cozsar! 

We now contemplate the darkness into which they have 
since fallen. Blindness indeed hath happened to Israel. Cut 
off, and cast forth among the nations, a by-word, a proverb, a 
taunt, according to the sure word of prophecy; thrown as the 
refuse of society into every country under heaven, — oppressed, 
— tied down and bound under penal statutes, — exposed to every 
species of indignity, — one nation after another hath risen in 
almost exterminating cruelty against them, and thousands have 
been put to death merely because they were Jews. They have 
been treated as beasts of the field, even amongst the nations of 
Christendom, and to make humiliation still more humiliating, 
they have, in some parts of the Continent of Europe, been 
made to pay toll on the high road; and the toll exacted from 
a Jew has been the same as that paid for a swine. t Thus 
have indignities of every imaginable description been heaped 
upon the heads of this devoted people. Yet, in the midst of 
all, though scattered and peeled among the nations, they have 
not mingled in any way with them, neither have their num- 
bers diminished. Still they continue a numerous people, and 
still they are separated from all the tribes of the earth. They 
have adopted the customs of no country whither they have 
been carried captive; they have espoused the religion of none; 
they have intermarried with none. They stand aloof, at this 
day from all, a witness and spectacle upon earth, of the con- 
stant interference of the hand of God. History gives us no 
parallel to this; and it is impossible to account for it in any 
other way, than by the fact of Almighty interposition. Seve- 
ral attempts have been made to give what men call a rational 
solution of this difficulty: but, although conducted by able 
hands, they have proved signal failures; exposing the weak- 
ness of infidelity, even when supported by the most command- 
ing talents; and so magnifying the wisdom of the God of 
Israel, the God of the whole earth. Our own times supply a 
notable instance, in the person of a philosophical writer on 
physiology, who sneers at the notion of the existence of im- 
material beings, and labours to prove that man is mere matter, 
and that what enthusiasts call an immortal spirit in man, is 
nothing more than "organized brain." 

In his chapter on the causes of the varieties of the human 
species, finding the Jews, amongst other classes, forced upon 

* Isaiah liii. 1, 2, 3. 

t See Dr. Henderson's Travels in Russia and Poland. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 79 

his attention, he thus cursorily disposes of this important ques- 
tion: — "The Jews exhibit one of the most striking instances of 
national formation, unaltered by the most various changes. 
They have been scattered for ages over the face of the whole 
earth; but their peculiar religious opinions and practices have kept 
the race uncommonly pure."* Now it must be admitted, that 
this, so far, is not very philosophical. It is merely saying 
they are separate, because they are separate. The question is, 
how came they to adhere, so strictly and so long, to their pecu- 
liar religious opinions and practices, under the various circum- 
stances of their outward condition? The Romans adopted the 
opinions and practices of the Greeks; the Goths those of the 
Romans: and when Christianity was promulgated, Greeks, and 
Romans, and Goths, adopted the opinions and practices of cer- 
tain poor Galileans. How is it, then, that the Jews, scattered 
among all these nations, have kept aloof from them all, retain- 
ing their own peculiar opinions and practices? Surely it is 
not too much to expect that a philosopher, in assigning any 
reason whatever for their so doing, would, if he could, give a 
better reason than that they did so because they did so; and, 
therefore, surely it is not too much to conclude, that since he 
does not give a better, he has none better to give. And thus 
we perceive how a well-informed, acute, and useful man — a 
great man, so long as he confines himself to his legitimate 
sphere — unwittingly brings glory to God by his own discom- 
fiture, when he presumes to assail that holy ground, which 
Jehovah hath consecrated to place his name there. 

It may be urged, that the writer's object was simply to enu- 
merate, among the varieties of organization, that one exhibited 
by the Jews, and not at all to discuss the question of why they 
continue a separate people. To what purpose, then, is their 
separation spoken of at all? Still more: Why is any reason 
assigned for it? The truth is, the separate state of the Jewish 
people, in opinion and practice, is too closely connected with 
the evidences for the inspiration of the Scripture, to be a mat- 
ter of real, however it may be of affected indifference, to any 
of our modern Sadducees. 

"There hath visited us a preacher such as never preached to 
a reckless world before, on repentance and judgment to come, 
since the days of Noah; a preacher who bears the sign of his 
commission stamped upon the man, both in body and in mind; 
a preacher who, like Adam, can speak from experience, of the 
sorrows of ruin and degradation: a preacher who has been 
preaching ever since the church of Christ upon earth began, 
and shall preach until the end draw nigh. What? is there in- 

* Lawrence on Physiology, &c. — Page 468.— Edit. 3. 
21 



30 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

deed a corner of Christendom impenetrated by that mysterious 
stranger, who, bearing in his peculiar features the lineaments 
of Abraham, and thus at a glance announcing to us from what 
high estate he hath fallen; cherishing in his spirit all the sullen 
pride of ruined greatness; exhibiting in his dealings all the 
caution and timidity of the despised stranger! attracting by his 
attachment to the carnalities of his abrogated law, continued 
mockery and derision; moving by his superstition, his obsti- 
nacy, and his blindness, the pity of some, the contempt of 
others, the neglect of all; deprived even of the only ordained 
assurance of pardon, by being denied all means of sacrifice; — 
and holding in his hand the word of God, without a spirit to 
understand it; — is there, indeed, any church in Christendom, 
before which the Jew, this awful monitor, has never appeared? 
Oh! his prophetical character seems to cling to him still; every- 
where he appears as God's herald to warn against disobedience, 
to proclaim his judgments; and wherever he appears, there 
should be, as in the presence of the prophets of old, humilia- 
tion and awe. Thus doth this preacher, traversing daily 
Christ's kingdom, unceasingly admonish churches and indi- 
viduals; and, standing in our luxurious cities, should be to us 
as Jonah amid Nineveh, summoning us to repentance and 
mourning."* 

Thus they remain, present in all countries, and with a home 
in none: intermixed, and yet separated: neither amalgamated 
nor lost; but like those mountain streams which are said to 
pass through lakes of another kind of water, and keep a native 
quality to repel commixture, they hold communication without 
union, and may be traced, as rivers without banks, in the midst 
of the alien element which surrounds them. 

Yes, my brethren, only the hand of God can do this. The 
Jew remains a problem which infidelity can never solve. A 
nation, now in the close of the eighteenth century of her dis- 
persion, as distinct from the fluctuating multitudes of the na- 
tions, as the islands of the ocean are from the surrounding 
waves. The waves rise and fall, rage and subside again into 
quietness; but the firm rooted rocks of the islands remain un- 
moved. The empires of the earth, from Nimrod to Napoleon, 
like the waves of the sea, have chafed each their little hour of 
rage (rage, too, in persecuting bitterness) against the rock of 
Judah and have each sunk out of vision to rise no more. But 
the Jewish nation, the mountain of the Lord's house, based on 
a sure foundation, has stood, and stands, and will stand esta- 
blished in the top of the mountains, that all the earth may know 
and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the 
* The Church of God— by the Rev. R. W. Evans, p. 89. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. gj 

Lord hath done it, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it, 
according as it is written: "This people have I formed for 
myself; they shall show forth my praise." 

It is upon the vehicle of this nation, then, that we carry you 
forward to one of the most indisputable arguments for the 
literal interpretation of the prophecies, concerning the second 
coming of Christ. For, let us ask, to what end has this nation 
been so preserved? 

Is there not in the mere historical fact thus detailed to you, 
a presumption that they have been kept for some purpose? It 
would seem to have been interference in vain to have kept 
them thus separate, if, after all, they were to change with the 
course of time, and finally pass away like other nations, or be 
converted by the ordinary means into the Christian church. 
But if this nation is still to continue a nation, — still to be dis- 
tinct from all other people, — if they are to continue to have a 
land, which, though they be exiles from it, is still their land, 
— if they have a tenure of that land in the sure purpose and 
promise of God, — if they have a king, who, though absent, is 
still their king, and who shall reign over them on the throne of 
David for ever, — then we see a reason, an adequate, a glorious 
reason, why they should be kept on earth, — apart from the 
nations; ready for their king, while he is kept in heaven, 
ready for them; and when he returns, then shall they be 
gathered from the nations to meet their king, and they shall 
acknowledge him as "the lord their righteousness," and 
they shall say in his praise, "not, the Lord liveth, which 
brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 
but, the Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the 
seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from 
all the countries whither I had driven them; and they shall 
dwell in their own land." Jer. xxiii. 6 — 8. 

III. This is the subject we now turn to, namely, the pre- 
dicted glory and blessedness of Israel, at the second coming of 
her glorious Messiah. 

"All Israel shall be saved," saith the Apostle in our text. I 
do not at present enter into the question suggested by the ex- 
pression, "in part," in this passage. "Blindness in part hath 
happened to Israel." It refers to the difference between the 
nation which was cast away, and that remnant which was not 
cast away, but which formed a part of the Christian church, 
and one member of which was St. Paul himself. Rom. xi. 1 — 5. 

What I wish now to fix your attention upon, is the Jewish 
nation, as such. Blindness is come upon them, and will re- 
main upon them, until the Gentile times are fulfilled; and then 
all Israel shall be saved, because then the King of Israel, the 



§2 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

Deliverer, the Redeemer, shall return, as it is written. This 
is written, as we have seen, in the fifty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, 
and therefore (it is important to observe this), that prophecy 
cannot be applied to the first coming of Christ, by any inge- 
nuity of figurative or spiritual application; because St. Paul, 
writing subsequent to the first coming, quotes the prophecy as 
unfulfilled in his days; and as there has been no coming of the 
Redeemer to Zion since then, it follows that the prophecy is 
still unfulfilled. 

We nov/ refer to the particulars of that prophecy, where, 
after a description of the most awful judgments poured out 
upon Israel, we find the Lord turning his hand and proclaim- 
ing that they shall fear him, and come and return to him. "So 
shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his 
glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy shall come 
in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard 
against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto 
them that turn from transgression in Jacob;" or, as the Apostle 
quotes it, "shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." "As for 
me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; my spirit 
which is upon thee, and my words which I have put into thy 
mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth 
of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the 
Lord, from henceforth and for ever." When he shall turn 
them to the knowledge of Jesus, and take away all their sin by 
that blood which alone can cleanse from any sin, then this 
shall be his covenant, — that his word which he hath put into 
their mouth shall not depart out of it for ever. 

Mark, then, the Divine ecstasy of Isaiah in what follows 
concerning his beloved nation, and what forms, you will ob- 
serve, a part of that prophecy, which we have already proved 
to be still unfulfilled. Carried forward by the Divine Spirit 
to the period of its fulfilment, and having the restored nation 
before him, with the Redeemer come to Zion; the Prophet 
addresses her as emerging from the darkness in which she has 
been hitherto enveloped, and causing light and glory, and 
beauty to stream forth from her, on every side. Arise, shine, 
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 
Then, before he proceeds with his strain, he glances back at 
the state of the world up to the period of this great event. 
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness 
the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall 
be seen upon thee. Then to leave it as little ambiguous as pos- 
sible, that it is the Jewish nation which is thus addressed, he 
adds, And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the 
brightness of thy rising. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. g3 

The description of prevailing darkness in this passage does, 
indeed, present a difficulty at first sight, in the way of our in- 
terpretation. For, however characteristic such a description 
may be of the state of things previous to the first coming of 
our Lord, the general supposition (adopted without examina- 
tion, and fostered in self-love) is, that it is not at all applicable 
to the existing state of things in these enlightened days. My 
brethren, there is something divinely significant in the Apos- 
tle's warning to the Gentile churches: Be not zvise in your own 
conceits. Much that men call light is pronounced, by the word 
of God, to be darkness; and we hesitate not to declare, with- 
out the slightest risk of scriptural refutation; that darkness, 
gross darkness, is the true characteristic of the people of all 
lands to this day, not excepting the most favoured country in 
Christendom, and the most educated classes in that country. 

General information, useful knowledge, liberality of senti- 
ment, no bigotry, all creeds alike, — these compose the great 
Diana of our modern Ephesians. And what is general infor- 
mation, when thus divested of true religion? What are natural 
philosophy and natural history, however accurately investi- 
gated and luminously displayed, without the saving knowledge 
of God? If they deserve the name of light at all, it is but the 
coruscation of a meteor, to be succeeded by enduring darkness. 
Where is the philosopher, whose attainments in general know- 
ledge can be compared with those of Beelzebub, who is, never- 
theless, the prince of darkness? We do not depreciate natural 
science. In her own place, and for her legitimate ends, she 
commands our most cordial admiration, and most strenuous 
support. It is a slander, an unfounded and wilful slander 
against true religion, to say that she either fears, or frowns on, 
sound philosophy. But when science would usurp the seat 
and sceptre of revelation, and teach men to be proud of their 
own intellect, without or against God, it is the province of 
true religion to tell the usurper plainly that her boasted light 
is darkness, and to sound in her ear the words of the living 
God, whether she will hear, or whether she will forbear. Be- 
hold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about 7vith 
sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have 
kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in 
sorrow. 

And as for much that is called religion in the land, is it in- 
deed light, the true light of the everlasting gospel of God? I 
am aware that it is called by a variety of most agreeable names, 
as charity, liberality, toleration: but what is its real name, de- 
scriptive of its real properties? My brethren, I say the truth, 
when I answer it is indifference. For, mark well the dis- 
21* 



84 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

clples of this school. Is religion the subject of discussion? 
nothing can exceed their forbearance. Their kind, open- 
hearted candour embraces the whole world in self-complacent 
charity: they speak like very lambs. Is anything personal or 
political the theme? Is the discussion literary or scientific? Is 
the question at issue a matter of secular business, involving 
money or money's worth? Alas! where is the forbearance? 
Where the charity? Where the mild, benignant candour? 
Gone, all gone! In proportion as their feelings become in- 
terested, their tempers become heated, their principles bigotted, 
and their language severe and exclusive. Their intolerance 
and their feelings go hand in hand; and they shew no intole- 
rance in religion, because they have no real feeling upon the 
subject. Their charity costs them nothing. And is not this 
darkness? 

On the most momentous of all subjects, their language is 
this, or such as this: 'There are, we hope, many ways to 
heaven; whatever differences may now exist among men of 
various parties and opinions. After all, there is good sense, 
and practical religion too, in the famous couplet of our free- 
thinking Poet: 

For jarring creeds, let senseless bigots fight, 
His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right. 

Let every man go his own way, then; his religion is between 
himself and his God: do not interfere with other creeds and 
persuasions: you will only exasperate, and do harm. True 
religion is kind: there is no harshness in it towards our fellow- 
creatures, however differing from ourselves. God is merciful 
over all. I never can believe, that a kind beneficent Being 
will condemn his creatures to everlasting misery for those 
faults, which a frail nature exposed them to, or for that igno- 
rance which they could not avoid.' 

Is not this a fair unexaggerated representation of their opi- 
nions? Is it not lamentably true, that the prevailing tone of 
what is called Christianity around us, has so subsided into a 
good-natured softness, a plausible profession of individual 
humility, slily praising itself, while, at the same time, it affects 
too much diffidence to find fault with another; that any thing 
approaching the spirit, and fire, and zeal, and faith of primitive 
piety is denounced as fanaticism, or, at least, shrunk from and 
shunned as unholy, because unhumbled impetuosity, needless- 
ly offensive, and, therefore, exceedingly injudicious? Here 
lies the true secret of the great apparent increase of religion 
among us. The visible church has relaxed in both her doctrine 
and practice. She occupies a lower and broader platform than 
is meet; and having laid aside, as ultra and unnecessary, much 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 35 

of what is forbidding to the carnal mind, she has enticed mul- 
titudes to join hands with her, whose hearts are not right with 
her Lord, and who would never have made a show of joining 
her, had she adhered to the faithfulness of her Lord's truth, 
and the holiness of her Lord's example. It is not so much 
that genuine Christianity has increased, as that a spurious mix- 
ture, diluted to the palate of the world, is passing current for 
the true. And is not this darkness? 

Hear, ye plausible speakers of smooth things, saying, Peace, 
peace, when there is no peace; hear ye the word of the Lord: 
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, and the end there- 
of are the ways of death. It seemeth right, and leadeth unto 
death: so much for sincerity, that cameleon creature, which it 
has become the fashion to idolize. On the authority of the 
living God, we pronounce her a blind guide, promising heaven, 
and leading multitudes innumerable into hell. Hear ye the 
word of the Lord : Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that 
leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, be- 
cause strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto 
life, and few there be that find it. So much for that affectation of 
universal charity, which proudly contradicts even God himself, 
and says, "No! surely such harshness cannot be in God; no, 
no, wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to salva- 
tion; there is more good than evil in the world; I hope the 
best for all my fellow-creatures." Vain, groundless delusion! 
0, thou slanderer of Him who was charity indeed, who so 
loved the children of men, that he poured out his soul even 
unto death to save them, while he spake unto them plain and 
faithful things! 0, thou false friend, who coverest over the 
surface of the sinner's wound, and leavest the mortifying venom 
to w r ork its work of death within, how long shall this be in 
thine heart, to daub the wall with untempered mortar; to pro- 
phesy lies, and cause my people to forget my name, by your 
dreams, saith the Lord. He that hath a dream, let him tell a 
dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word 
faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. 
Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a ham- 
mer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Jer. xxiii. 26 — 2.9. 

But is not true religion, the genuine light of the gospel, 
amazingly increased in the world, and especially in our own 
land? Thanks be unto God, who has never left himself with- 
out witnesses: the gates of hell can never prevail against the 
true church of his dear Son; and in joy and gladness do we 
recognise the out-stretched arm of his Almighty grace, snatch- 
ing brands from the burning, and adding to the church daily 
such as shall be saved. To be instrumental in this glorious 



g5 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

work is our best privilege, our highest, purest, most constrain- 
ing joy. But the light which thus shines in the body of 
Christ, though inextinguishable by all the power, and craft, 
and subtlety of the devil, or man, or both; and though a faith- 
ful and true witness for the Most High, nobly confessing the 
absent king even in the rebel's camp, is yet too small to deliver 
the nations from the wide-spreading darkness. It can no more 
enlighten the world by its present means of self-extension, pre- 
vious to the return of the Saviour, and the restoration of the 
Jews, than the light-houses on our coast can spread radiance 
across the ocean. They supply, each in its small locality, a 
true, and steady, and most valuable beacon, but the broad 
bosom of the ocean remains sunk in darkness till the returning 
sun gilds again the eastern horizon. 

Let darkness be put for ignorance of, and enmity against, 
God; his character, infinitely perfect in every attribute; his 
revealed truth in Jesus Christ; his special providence; his long 
suffering patience; and his coming judgment: and it is evident 
to all who have spiritual discernment, that this first clause in 
the second verse of Isaiah lx. presents no real difficult}^ Some 
of the succeeding verses are abundantly precise. The sons of 
strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister 
unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I 
had mercy on thee. It would be difficult to find words more 
accurately and comprehensively descriptive of the Jewish 
history. The Prophet proceeds: "Therefore thy gates shall be 
open continually: they shall not be shut day nor night; that 
men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that 
their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom 
that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall 
be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto 
thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify 
the place of my sanctuary: and I will make the place of my 
feet glorious. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall 
come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee, shall 
bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall 
call thee, The City of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of 
Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that 
no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excel- 
lency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt also suck the 
milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breasts of kings; and 
thou shalt know that I, the Lord, am thy Saviour, and thy 
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." 

Similar is the prediction of the Prophet Micah upon this 
subject: "In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that 
halteth; and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 87 

I have afflicted. And I will make her that halted a remnant; 
and'her that was cast far off, a strong nation; and the Lord shall 
reign over them in mount Zion,from henceforth, even for ever. And 
thou, Tower of the flock, the strong-hold of the daughter of 
Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the 
kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem." Mic. iv. 
6—8. 

And the Prophet Zechariah, in like manner, declares the 
glory of the Jewish nation, when her God and Saviour shall re- 
turn to her. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; It shall yet come 
to pass, that there shall come people and the inhabitants of 
many cities: And the inhabitants of one city shall go to an- 
other, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and 
to seek the Lord of hosts; I will go also. Yea, many people 
and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in 
Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of 
Hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take 
hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold 
of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with 
you: for we have heard that God is with you." Zech. vii. 
20—23. 

Now contemplate this whole subject in one view. God has 
divided his great proceeding with this world into four steps. 
1. He took a nation circumcised in his name, and having an 
elect people within it, saved by his grace. 2. He has taken a 
number of nations (still a small number, compared with all 
mankind) baptized in his name, and having an elect people 
within them, saved by his grace. Here as yet he pauses! 3. 
He will take a saved nation, the Jews, the first that ever will be 
saved as a nation. There is no such thing now as a saved na- 
tion, nor never has been: though there are, and have been, 
nations called by the Saviour's name. The first nation that 
shall ever appear on the face of the earth, of whom it can be 
truly said, they all know and love the Lord, from the least 
unto the greatest, will be the restored Jewish nation. 4. The 
fourth step is the gathering of all the nations, to the brightness 
of Judah's light, and to the glory of her rising. What shall 
the receiving of her be, but life from the dead? 

Thus God has concluded all in unbelief, that he might have 
mercy upon all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wis- 
dom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judg- 
ments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known 
the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or 
who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto 
him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all 
things: to whom be glory for ever.* Amen. 

* See Rom. xi. passim. 



§3 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 



SERMON V. 

The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, in its con- 
nexion with the present suffering, and coming glory of 
the Saints: the present proud prosperity, and coming 
utter destruction of the ungodly. 

2 Thess. i. 6 — 9. "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense 
tribulation to them that trouble you. 

"And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be 
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels; in flaming fire taking ven- 
geance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the 
Lord, and from the glory of his power." 

These are tremendous words! 

Following the selected services of the church at this season, 
the second Advent of the Lord Jesus is still our subject. I 
have set before you the great fact: its time, and nature; some 
of the signs predicted to precede it: and its connexion with 
the history of Israel, that wonderful people, God's witnesses 
from generation to generation. 

My present intention is to show its connexion with the 
suffering now, and the glory hereafter, of the children of God: 
the proud prosperity now, and the utter destruction hereafter, 
of ungodly men. 

For this purpose I have selected the comprehensive state- 
ment of our text, in which the Apostle declares, in words that 
burn, what the Lord will do at his coming, both to the suffer- 
ing believer, and to the hitherto triumphant oppressor. 

Of the origin of the Church at Thessalonica we read in the 
17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. When St. Paul was 
itinerating from city to city, preaching both to Jews and 
Greeks the everlasting Gospel of the grace of God, amongst 
other places he came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of 
the Jews: and Paul as his manner was, went in unto them, and 
three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures: open- 
ing and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen 
again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach to you, 
the despised Nazarene, is Christ, the anointed one of God, pre- 
dicted by the prophets. And some of them believed and consorted 
with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, 
and of the chief women not a few. Thus was laid the foundation 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. §9 

of a Christian church in Thessalonica, consisting not of Jews 
only; there were in it a multitude of Greeks: neither of the 
Greeks only, for some of the Jews believed: not all the Jews 
in the city, as is evident from the sequel, nor all the Greeks, 
but some chosen individuals from amongst each class.* 

No sooner were these persons called of God, than they 
began to suffer persecution from men. No sooner did a Thes- 
salonian Isaac begin to move in the city, than he felt the hatred 
of the Thessalonian Ishmael. The chief enmity was, of course, 
directed against the Apostle himself, and he was obliged to 
leave the place, in compliance with that command of his Divine 
Master, When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another: 
but though absent from them in person, his heart was touched 
with care for them, in common with all the churches: and 
under the immediate guidance of the Holy Ghost he addressed 
two epistles to them. In the good providence of God these 
epistles have been preserved for our instruction, and no com- 
munication from God to man can be more direct, than their 
language to us. Their opening address, Paul and Silvanus and 
Timotheus, unto the Church of the Thessalonians, fyc. may be 
paraphrased thus: The ministers of Jesus Christ at a particular 
time, to the believing people of Christ in some particular city 
or country at that time — Augustine and Cyprian to the church 
of the Carthagenians; Luther and Melancthon to the church of 
the Germans; Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, to the church of the 
English: and thus, beloved brethren, these epistles are ad- 
dressed to you. For as God takes care, that there shall be a 
constant succession of believers, so also, he takes care that 
there shall be a constant succession of ministers; and the lan- 
guage of these, and of all the epistles, abides in full force, and 
in a standing uninterrupted application, as the language of 
God; addressed, by the instrumentality of the faithful ministers 
of Christ, lawfully appointed in succession from the Apostles, 
unto the churches of God in all the earth. 

After the Apostolical salutation, he says, at the third verse 
of this chapter, from whence our text is taken, we are bound to 
thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your 
faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all 
towards each other aboundeth. Their faith was not merely an 
historical assent to facts. Such an assent cannot grow. We 
can be no more than assured of a fact. But true Christian 
faith does grow exceedingly. It lays hold of the word of 
God, not only as a record of facts which have actually taken 
place, but also as a witness for unseen and eternal things. It 
grows: and with its growth the power of things invisible be- 
* See 1 Thess. i. 4, 5, and compare 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14. 



90 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

comes more and more dominant over the heart and life. This 
is manifested by offices of love, abounding love. These are 
the general characteristics of a Christian church, growing faith, 
and abounding love; every thing progressive, as the rising sun 
shining more and more unto the perfect day. For these, where 
we behold them, we are bound to thank God. He alone giveth 
the increase. The Apostle proceeds, (verse 4,) so that we our- 
selves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and 
faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. Per- 
secution and tribulation for the sake of Christian faithfulness 
are the common lot of the people of God, during this dispen- 
sation. They are here spoken of as a matter of course. No 
surprise is expressed at their existence, only thankfulness to 
God, for the patience and faith with which they were endured. 
A more direct testimony on this point was contained in the 
Apostle's first epistle to this church, when he told them (iii. 
3, 4) that no man should be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves 
know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were 
with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even 
as it came to pass, and ye know. Similar to this is the language 
of our Lord, and of the other Apostles; and the state of things 
so described must so continue, until the arrival of that grand 
crisis which is under our consideration — the second coming of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

From this fourth verse we learn further, that it is lawful for 
a minister to glory, or boast, of his believing and obedient 
people, to other churches: not indeed of any native excellencies 
in themselves; not of their numbers, their riches, their tempo- 
ral influence, their talents, or superiority in anything natural, 
which could minister to their pride: but of the manifestations 
of God's power in them, sustaining them in patience, by faith, 
under grievous trials, (verse 5,) which is a manifest token of the 
righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the 
kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer. The fact that they 
were providentially called to endurance, combined with the 
fact that they were graciously enabled to endure patiently and 
in faith, supplied to the Apostle a manifest proof of God's 
righteous dealings with them, preparing them for the enjoy- 
ment of his glorious kingdom. 

Worthy is used in two senses, to express, 1, merit; and 2, 
meetness. A beautiful illustration of this is supplied by our 
communion service. As touching merit, we declare that we 
are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under the 
Lord's table: but as touching meetness, we insist upon the 
necessity of worthiness; saying, that if we eat and drink un- 
worthily, we eat and drink our own damnation. He who 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 91 

thinks himself worthy in the sense of merit, is utterly un- 
worthy in the sense of meetness. 

The sense in the passage now before us, is meetness. From 
the sufferings, as well as from the doings of creatures, in their 
highest and most perfect condition, merit is, and must be, for 
ever excluded; but there is something in suffering, when 
meekly and patiently endured, in the faith of God's merciful 
love: there is something in the rod, when the soul is humbled, 
in trembling cheerfulness to kiss the rod; which has a mighty 
effect upon the character, in producing meetness, or suitable- 
ness, or worthiness, for the inheritance of the kingdom of God. 

In the contemplation of all this, the Apostle gives thanks to 
God, and proceeds to inform the church what the Lord will 
do, not with them only who suffer, but also with their enemies 
who caused them to suffer. This is remarkable. According 
to the estimate which we sometimes hear of charity, it would 
have been more kind, more gentle, more Christian, more 
meek-spirited, for the Apostle to have comforted the brethren, 
without mentioning their enemies; to have set before them 
their own high expectations, without turning their attention to 
the sufferings of the ungodly, or disturbing the minds of his 
readers by such words as "vengeance," "flaming fire," and 
"everlasting destruction. " There is no more common feeling 
among the people of the world, who fancy themselves Chris- 
tians, but who have little anxiety about the glory of God, than 
that it is unchristian to use harsh words. My brethren, the 
Bible is full of them: the glory of God must be consulted; and 
whatever human feeling may say, it ought to be enough for 
the believer to find that the Holy Ghost, the God of true love 
— (not that plausible professing love, which is in truth bar- 
barity — for it leaves the sinner in his sins to perish) — has 
uttered these words by the Apostle, declaring, with awful 
plainness, the approaching doom of the troublers of the brethren. 
They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the pre- 
sence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. It is a righteous 
thing, he says, for God to do this. 

God is righteous: essentially, unalterably, eternally righteous. 
He will, he can do nothing but what is righteous. In his 
management of this world, during this present dispensation, 
or as we commonly express it, in Divine Providence, there are 
many things which seem to us to be unrighteous. In the lan- 
guage of one of our poets, 

"That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey, 
Here springs a doubt of Providence's sway." 

And, certainly, that dishonest men should thrive upon the 
gains of fraudulent dealing, and men of strict principle be 
22 



92 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

defrauded, and imposed upon, and laughed at: That plausible* 
fawning hypocrites should succeed in their wily schemes, and 
fasten evil reports, false charges, sorrows, persecutions, losses, 
upon their sincere and upright and unsuspecting neighbours: 
That such a man as Henry Marty n, whose whole heart and 
soul and life were devoted to the service of God, should be 
afflicted with pain and sickness, and cut off in the bloom of his 
age — while such a man as Carlile, who publicly tramples upon 
the Bible, and defies God to stike him dead, should be spared 
in health and strength, and ease, to an old age — these and such 
like are startling things to creatures such as we are, forming 
such opinions as we form, and cannot but form, concerning 
goodness and Omnipotence. But this is our infirmity; There 
is an old proverb, which, without the slightest irreverence, but 
in all holy solemnity, may be applied to this: "Fools and 
children should not judge of half-done work." A wise man 
who can understand the plan and end of the work, may form 
a correct judgment of the progress. An architect and a com- 
mon labourer look with very different eyes and minds upon 
the foundation of a complicated but well-planned building. 
Touching God's great work in providence, the wisest man 
upon earth is but a fool, or a child, or an untutored labourer. 
It is as yet but half-done work. The foundation is indeed laid, 
and the work in progress, and the great Architect beholds the 
plan and end. The end will explain all. Providence is the 
enigma: judgment the solution. Nothing but the judgment 
can throw light, true light, upon the dark places of Providence. 
Now, as the judgment of God is entirely a matter of prophecy 
to us, it follows that except as we study and understand pro- 
phecy, and believe what is therein revealed, we have no true 
satisfactory light in the contemplation of Providence. The 
utmost that can be accomplished on this point, by human saga- 
city, is a successful appeal to human ignorance. Difficulties 
similar to those we meet with in moral providence are shown 
to exist in the natural world. Nature, in all her procedure, is 
taken for granted to be God's work; and thence it is conclud- 
ed, and most forcibly, that it would be unreasonable to deny 
his moral government, on account of difficulties similar to those, 
to which we must submit in the natural world. This after all 
is, as I have said, but an (argumentum ad ignorantiam) argu- 
ment addressed to our ignorance. But the volume of pro- 
phecy contains information upon the subject. It supplies that 
measure of information which it has pleased God to bestow; 
and which will be found very satisfactory, both as regards the 
natural and the moral state of this present evil world. It sup- 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 93 

plies warning also; and thus addresses itself to the hopes and 
fears of every man who believes it. 

But if men will not study the word of prophecy, — if they 
will persevere in saying, "prophecy was intended only for 
evidence after it is fulfilled, and every attempt to elucidate its 
meaning previously must be fanciful and vain," — then they 
wilfully deprive themselves of divine information concerning 
the character of God's present patience, and divine warning 
concerning the nature of God's coming judgment. 

St. Paul beheld the providence of God over the church of 
the Thessalonians. It was dark. The people of God, who 
had forsaken idolatry, and were waiting for the coming of 
Christ, were persecuted and in affliction. The wicked heathen 
and Jewish persecutors were prosperous and powerful. How 
shall the Apostle view this state of things as righteous? And 
how shall he minister consolation to the saints, who were suf- 
fering under it? Impossible, without reference to prophecy. 
This, however, throws light upon the whole matter. It not 
only holds out hope in the end, but it reflects back righteous- 
ness upon the various steps of the progress. Here are unde- 
served suffering on one side, and unprovoked persecution on 
the other; and God seems to disregard it! Yet all is righteous, 
when looked upon as part of a great whole. Viewed as de- 
tached links, many things seem utterly disproportionate; but 
seen in the universal chain, and connected with the great end, 
all things are beautifully harmonious. The end is judgment: 
the righteous judgment of God: judgment twofold. Tribula- 
tion to the troublers: rest to the troubled. Vengeance, flam- 
ing fire, everlasting destruction to the persecutors: the king- 
dom of God, and the glory and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
to the persecuted for righteousness sake. The time also of the 
judgment is here distinctly declared: When the Lord Jesus shall 
be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels. 

It is true, this judgment did not come during the lifetime of 
the suffering Thessalonians. It has not yet come. But God 
deals with and addresses his church as an aggregate continuous 
body, — a sort of corporation, which lives from generation to 
generation. The last generation of it shall not die,* but be 
transformed in a moment into the likeness of their returning 
Lord; and so, at once, be eyewitnesses of his rectifying judg- 
ment. The church is addressed in the Bible as if each gene- 
ration might be the last.t Thus each successive generation, 
that gives heed to the Bible, is kept watchful; the language of 
the Bible is kept in perpetual application; and shall at last find 

* 1 Thess. iv. 15—17. 1 Cor. xv. 51. 

t Matt. xxiv. 42—44. Phil. iii. 20, 21. James v. 7, 8. 



94 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

its fulfilment to the very letter. It is true, that in the mean 
time many generations have fallen short of the predicted judg- 
ment; and, had the word of God been constructed for special 
application to their individual case, it might seem to have 
passed away with them. But it is constructed with such an 
eye to the corporate aspect of the church, that while year after 
year bears testimony to the truth that all flesh is grass, and all 
the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field, the grass 
withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God abideth 
for ever. 

The time is short in the sight of God. With him a thou- 
sand years are as one day. The Christian church has not yet 
been two days suffering; and the third day is the resurrection! 
The end is sure. The day of the Lord will come; for the 
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The world, in its present 
state, is not to last for ever. Generations of mankind are not 
to continue to succeed one another, son after father, as they 
have done. Kingdoms on the earth are not to rise and fall, 
in interminable succession. A change, complete, fundamental, 
and as unexpected as complete, will take place suddenly. In 
the midst of all the business and bustle, and merriment of a 
giddy world; even while the preached and published warn- 
ings of the ambassadors for Christ are neglected, and the de- 
ceitful hearts of men are whispering to themselves and to their 
posterities, peace and safety: Behold! the Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump 
of God! 

We have already seen the issue, both to his friends and ene- 
mies. 1. "He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to 
be admired in all them that believe, in that day." The ex- 
pression in this verse is remarkable; to be admired in all them 
that believe. (ENTnta-troia-Trta-rsuoviriv.) His image will be mani- 
fested in each of them. Their souls will be completely con- 
formed to the mind of God, as revealed in the human soul of 
Jesus; and their bodies transformed into a perfect similitude 
of the glorified body of Jesus. Each will behold and admire 
Jesus in every other: every stone of the temple reflecting the 
image of the presiding Lord of the temple; and every voice, 
as with one note of simultaneous joy, giving praise, and honour, 
and glory, to him who is the sure foundation-stone, the chief 
corner-stone, the head stone of the corner. 

This is salvation, perfected — soul and body. It began in 
the soul of each with the first movements of the Holy Ghost, 
teaching the sinner to believe and trust in Jesus; to hate sin, 
in the pollution of it; and to hate it more and more, in propor- 
tion as he became more and more assured, that he was freely 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 95 

and completely delivered from all condemnation for it. It 
proceeded further, when the believer was enabled, by the 
same Spirit, to adorn, before men, the doctrine of God his 
Saviour, by bringing forth fruits of righteousness. It advanced, 
when the believer was strengthened to glory in tribulation also, 
knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience gives 
experience, and experience increases hope, and hope, though 
long deferred, maketh not ashamed, because it is grounded on 
the sure word of God, and the love of God is shed abroad in 
the heart, leading it in meekness of wisdom to read and kiss 
the rod. It advanced again, when the believer was called to 
lay aside his earthly house of this tabernacle, and being absent 
from the body, to be present with the Lord. And it shall 
advance finally? and to perfection, when the believer, receiv- 
ing back again his body, immortal, incorruptible, glorious, 
shall see Jesus as he is, and be like him, and be with him for 
ever. 

Have patience, then, dear Christian brethren. I speak to 
those who have faith, whose faith groweth, and whose love to 
one another aboundeth. I speak to those who have sorrow 
under the afflicting hand of God; or persecution, it maybe, 
from the enmity of men: not, indeed, the rack, the faggot, or 
the sword, (glory be to God, who hath, in this favoured land, 
restrained the violence of human passion, by the barrier of 
human laws!) but the tongue that stings; the supercilious scorn 
that wounds; the adroitly-pointed ridicule that provokes re- 
taliation, bitterly repented of the next moment: or the cun- 
ningly devised falsehood, which, with some remote appearance 
of truth maliciously laid hold of, succeeds in affixing a stain 
upon your Christian reputation. Oh, have patience: exercising 
that faith which "overcometh the world." "He that be- 
lieveth shall not make haste." You are now often compelled 
to eat the bread of sorrow, and drink the cup of affliction: but 
yet a little while, and your Lord will come, and he will give 
you to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the para- 
dise of God. You are now often compelled to groan, being 
burdened in a body of sin and death, and are exposed to trials 
which are more severe to your affectionate hearts than death 
itself: but yet a little while, and your Lord will come, and 
you shall not be hurt of the second death. You are now forced 
to feel your weakness, and the utter incapacity under which 
you labour, to defend yourselves against your powerful ene- 
mies around you; but yet a little while, and your Lord will 
come, and he will give you power over the persecuting nations, 
to rule them with a rod of iron: as the vessels of a potter shall 
they be broken to pieces, and he will give you the morning- 
22* 



95 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

star. You are now compelled to sit down as a poor desolate 
widow, rejected and scorned, and cast out as the off-scouring 
of all things: but be of good cheer, yet once a little while, and 
your Lord will come, and he will give unto you to sit down 
with him in his throne, even as he himself has in the mean 
time, sat down in the Father's throne. Oh, let patience have 
her perfect work: repose yourselves on the unseen but ever 
present arm of the Lord; seek not by any carnal device to 
escape from trial or from duty: be faithful unto death, and he 
will give you a crown of life. If you suffer with him, ye shall 
also reign with him. He will righteously recompense unto 
you, rest. You shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; 
neither shall the sun light on you, nor any heat. For the 
Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed you, and 
shall lead you unto living fountains of waters: and God shall 
wipe away all tears from your eyes.* 

II. But oh! there is another, and a fearful side to this pic- 
ture. To the troubled, rest; but to the troublers — oh! gracious 
God! are there any such here present: hearing the gospel from 
curiosity, or controversy, or custom; but rejecting the gospel, 
and therefore hanging on the verge of everlasting destruction! 
Great God! teach them by the word of the Lord to know and 
believe the terrors of the Lord, and to flee from the wrath to 
come! 

Fellow sinners, hear me. Because you have no changes, 
therefore you fear not God. You abuse the merciful and 
patient uniformity of God's dealings in providence, into a 
secret plea for infidelity. And because judgment is not 
speedily executed against worldly-mindedness, your hearts are 
fully set in you to be worldly-minded. Judgment does not 
indeed come speedily, as man counts speed; but it comes 
surely. You are warned by word and deed. God spared not 
the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell. He spared 
not the old world, but brought an exterminating deluge upon 
the ungodly. He set forth Sodom and Gomorrah, as an ex- 
ample, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. He spared not 
the impenitent Egyptians, but overthrew them in the Red sea: 
nor the impenitent Amorites, but gave commission to the 
sword of Joshua, to leave none remaining, but utterly destroy 
all that breathed: nor the Assyrians: nor the Babylonians; nay, 
he spared not Jerusalem herself, but addressed these words of 
terror to her, a prelude to her destruction, Fill ye up, then, said 
the Lord Jesus to that incorrigible people, who refused to be 
warned, after all the long-suffering patience of God, with the 
many generations who had gone before them: Fill ye up, then, 
* See Rev. ii. and iii. throughout, and vii. 13—17. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 97 

the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of 
vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, 
behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: 
and some of them ye shall kill and crucify: and some of them 
shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from 
city to city. That upon you may come all the righteous blood 
shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto 
the blood of Zecharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew be- 
tween the temple and the altar. Verily, I say unto you, All 
these things shall come upon this generation. Jerusalem! 
Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets, and stoneth them 
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy 
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under 
her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto 
you desolate.* 

Men and brethren, are all these warnings to be thrown away 
upon you? In the Lord's language to Jerusalem, we perceive 
the great and terrible truth, that the climax of the judgment 
falls upon the last generation. All these things are written 
for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
Each succeeding generation of wicked men, has been living 
in aggravated wickedness; not merely in their own individual 
transgressions but in transgression under the peculiar circum- 
stances of longer delayed retribution; transgression under the 
peculiar provocation of despising so much more patience.t 
Thus, the longer the patience of God waits, the more inexcusa- 
ble becomes the wickedness of men. Each generation in- 
herits a burthen of transgression from their fathers, adds their 
own to it, and bequeaths it thus increased to their children. 
The long-suspended blow is gathering strength; and when it 
falls, it will fall with an energy of vengeance and utter ruin, 
collected from the accumulated provocation of many genera- 
tions. Thus, while the Lord waits to be gracious; sin, per- 
severed in, becomes more aggravated in its guilt; and judg- 
ment deferred, becomes more overwhelming in its character. 
And the end shall be as the end of Jerusalem. The climax of 
the judgment shall fall upon the last generation of the uncon- 
verted, the generation which shall be alive on the earth when 
the Lord Jesus shall descend from heaven. All the genera- 
tions of mankind who have died in impenitence and unbelief, 
must indeed be finally ruined; but there is a peculiarity of 
instantaneous and perfected damnation, soul and body, which 
awaits the last generation. 

Destruction! everlasting destruction from the presence of 
the Lord, and from the glory of his power! I beseech you, 

* Matt, xxiii. 33—38. t See Rom. ii. 4—6. 



98 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

brethren, by the mercies of God; the all-sufficient, redeeming 
mercies of God, as yet freely proclaimed to you in the blood 
of Jesus Christ, and saying to you with all the urgency of in- 
tense affection, — Behold, now is the appointed time; to con- 
sider deeply what destruction means. 

It is truth known too late! It is penetrating conviction of 
sin, when there remains no sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. 
It is pollution felt to be misery, combined with the certainty 
that holiness is now for ever unattainable. It is iniquity in 
perpetuity. It is to be effectually deprived of all carnal cal- 
lousness, all stupifying worldly-mindedness, all hardening 
infidelity; to be forced to think and feel; and to find thought 
and feeling agony. It is to shrink from the relentless fury of 
the storm, when shelter has become absolutely hopeless; to 
cast a look of desperate wretchedness at the ascending ark, 
while the fiery flood below encircles the writhing body, and 
the brightness of the glory of the long despised Jesus, pierces 
the impotent and despicable, but still malignant soul. It is to 
see the saints whom you hated and jeered, and slandered; de- 
livered from all your malice, and exalted to glory: yea, to see 
that your persecution of them gave occasion to them of exer- 
cising those graces which have enlarged their capacities for the 
enjoyment of eternal glory: to be provoked to madness by 
their prosperity; and still more, by discovering that in the 
righteous judgment of God, the time has come when they shall 
triumph in holy indignation over your deserved ruin. They 
shall be so entirely on the Lord's side — their minds and wills 
so harmonized with his — that when it becomes a righteous 
thing in him to take vengeance, it will be a righteous thing in 
them to rejoice at it. While on earth they wished you well, 
and did you good in spite of all your opposition: they prayed 
for you, and would not be provoked by all your ill treatment 
of them. You could not understand their principles of for- 
giving love, which they had learned in the cross of Christ; 
and being actuated only by your own maxims of human pride, 
you despised, or affected to despise, their littleness and want 
of spirit. But now the principles of judgment and justice are 
in action. The Lord Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven in 
flaming fire, and his saints are called to sing hallelujahs, while 
they behold the ascending smoke of your eternal torments.* 
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall 
wash his feet in the blood of the wickedA The enigma of Pro- 
vidence shall be finished. The solution of judgment shall be 
manifested: not in some hitherto untried region of creation., 

* Rev. xix. 1, 2 3 3. t Psalm Iviii. 10. 



OP THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 99 

but in the earth. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a re- 
ward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.* 

Brethren, you are touched, and awed under the word of 
God. What a solemn stillness pervades this dense multitude! 
What a moment of deep responsibility to many souls! Con- 
science is at work. God has not left himself without witness 
in any of you. A secret impression even now rises out of the 
depth of your moral being, as if it were the whisper of an angel, 
exacting from you an inward resolution to be more serious, 
more in earnest about eternity, more concerned about your 
soul's salvation. My dearly beloved in the Lord, encourage 
the heavenly visitant; yield to the thrilling emotion which 
would cast you in prostrate confession of your sins, before the 
cross of Jesus. He will not quench the smoking flax, nor 
break the bruised reed. No; he is ready and willing, in- 
finitely so, in loving-kindness and tender mercy, to invigorate 
and mature such struggling impressions by the grace and 
power of the Holy Ghost. 

Go home, then, and enter into your chambers, and shut to 
your doors, and cry earnestly to God, as men who really mean 
what they say; imploring him in much mercy, not to suffer 
your present convictions to subside; not to suffer your hearts 
to be again ensnared by the idolatry of the businesses, amuse- 
ments, follies, and corruptions of this evil world; but to give 
you that sanctifying energy of eternal life, which will cause 
you to realize his authority and appointment in all the duties 
of your station; to perform them as so many acts of obedience 
to him, inclusive indeed of your own advantage and reputation, 
yet still not ultimately for yourself, but unto God, and thus to 
convert the commonest occupations, yea, even the very drudge- 
ries of life, into means of grace; entering into the blessed ex- 
perience of that apostolical combination of the Christian charac- 
ter — not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.\ 

* Psalm lviii. 11. t Rom. xii. 11. 



100 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 



SERMON VI. 

The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ in its con- 
7iexion with the present groaning misery, and the coming 
renovation unto blessedness, of the ivhole earth. 

Rev. xxi. 5. "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things 
new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." 

We have now reached the termination of that season, during 
which our church services direct our special attention to the 
second Advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I do 
not use a figure of exaggerated speech, but a plain truth, plainly 
expressed, when I say, that no subject is more frequently or 
copiously spoken of in the holy Scriptures. And no wonder: 
for it is the crowning subject of all, towards which every in- 
termediate subject tends. It is the final chorus in which all 
the harmony of prophecy combines. It is the ocean into 
which all the streams of revelation empty themselves as their 
great home. Sin and misery till he comes; righteousness and 
happiness at his coming! Groanings and agony till he comes; 
songs of triumph at his coming! Faint glimmerings of hope, 
amidst surrounding and prevailing darkness, and desolation, 
and despair, till he comes: everlasting light, and life, and joy, 
and love, at his coming! These are the cadences which con- 
tinually fall upon our ear from the sacred harp. 

We have already contemplated the scriptural connexion of 
this great subject with the restoration of the Jewish nation, 
the resurrection of the Christian church, and the everlasting 
destruction of the unbelieving opposers and neglecters of the 
Gospel. Our present object is to consider the connexion of 
the Lord's coming, with the consequent blessedness of the 
whole earth. 

1. It is difficult for us to apprehend how Omnipotence can 
be engaged in any continued conflict; because, on the side of 
Omnipotence there necessarily exists the ability to put an end 
to all opposition in a moment. When with almighty power 
we associate infinite goodness, and when we perceive that the 
conflict maintained is against wickedness, the difficulty to our 
apprehension is increased; because on the side of infinite good- 
ness there necessarily exists the will to put an end to all wick- 
edness. Infinite power, against which all resistance is utterly 
hopeless: and infinite goodness, in which there never can be 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. JQJ 

the slightest mixture of evil — these form the simplest and most 
comprehensive idea of the character of God; the unobstructed 
triumph of these, is but another mode of expressing what St. 
Paul designates by God being all in all. Enchanting prospect, 
to be realized at the coming and kingdom of the Lord Jesus 
Christ; God all in all! his character known, his name hallowed, 
his will done on earth as* it is in heaven! Oh, is it possible 
that we, even we, shall ever be inhabitants of that happy land, 
citizens of that glorious city! Alas, our awakened conscience 
trembles, and our faithless aching hearts, can scarcely antici- 
pate a consummation so delightful. 

We are here surrounded by evil. We feel it within, and 
we see and lament over it without. Yet we know that God, 
one God, infinite in power and goodness, rules over all. To 
sound the full depth of this mystery is too much for us. Cre- 
ated intellect fails in the attempt. This much, however, we 
know with infallible certainty, that the*conflicting enemies 
who oppose God, must be voluntarily spared, and their 
strength, in which they contend, voluntarily prolonged by 
the mighty one: and that the issue of the conflict, when 
viewed as a whole, and in all its bearings and relations to the 
whole creation, must be good. 

God is sovereign over all. When he created this world, he 
delegated the dominion of it to the first man. This is recorded 
in the first chapter of Genesis. And God said, Let us make 
man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion 
over the Jish of the sea. and over the fowl of the air, and over the 
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that 
creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image; 
in the image of God created he him; male and female created he 
them. And God blessed them; and God said unto them, Be fruit- 
ful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and 
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.* The image of 
God here mentioned, includes office as well as character. Adam 
was not only religious in character, but also a sovereign in 
•office. His character was the same in kind, though infinitely 
inferior in degree, with God's character of perfect goodness: 
and his office was the same in kind, though infinitely inferior 
in degree, with God's office of universal sovereignty. God's 
character, essentially and infinitely perfect in itself, and in the 
sight of all intelligent creatures: man's character, imbibing as 
much of it, as the particular creature was made capable of con- 
taining. God's sovereignty pervading all creation throughout 

* Gen. i. 26—28. 



1Q2 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

the expanse of boundless immensity; man's sovereignty per- 
vading this single planet, which was made for man! 

This image of God, in both its parts, Adam lost by his 
transgression. At one fatal blow Satan succeeded in a double 
mischief. Impurity stained Adam's heart, and the sceptre fell 
from his hand. In an instant he became both a criminal and 
a slave; depraved and powerless. The successful tempter be- 
came as successful an usurper; and the first Adam, the poor 
exiled monarch of the earth, sunk at once into pollution and 
captivity. His dominions shared his misery. The earth, 
created for a righteous sovereign, refused to yield her increase, 
in free luxuriance, to an unrighteous tyrant. The great Sove- 
reign, Almighty God, instead of interfering at once to expel 
the usurper, and restore his fallen creature, his delegated king 
on earth, mysteriously permitted the continuance of the dis- 
aster. Nay, more, he added a curse in righteous anger upon 
the delinquent. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hark- 
ened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I 
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the 
ground for thy sake; in sorrow 'shalt thou eat of it all the days of 
thy life: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and 
thou shalt eat of the herb of the fi eld. In the sweat of thy face shalt 
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast 
thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.* 
Thus the vegetable world fell under the curse; instead of the 
myrtle and the fir-tree, there came up the thorn and the brier. 
The animal creation, whose food became thus blighted, partook 
of the mischief; and instead of the wide-spread harmony which 
they had manifested under Adam, while he was their holy 
sovereign, they imbibed against one another, and against fallen 
man, all the diabolical passions of Satan. 

What a fearful change! Before the usurpation, God saw 
every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good;i but 
now, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, 
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on 
the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I 
will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth; 
both man and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the 
air: for it repenteth me that I have made them.% Yes! Adam 
begat sons and daughters in his own likeness, depraved and 
powerless; criminals in the eye of God, and bond slaves in the 
trammels of the devil. The pollution, and the captivity are 
coeval: the loss of character, and loss of office: the righteous- 
ness being gone, the sovereignty is also gone. We groan, 

* Gen. ii. 17—19. t Gen. i. 31. % Gen. vi. 5—7. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 103 

being burdened. Weakness and wickedness are ours. Every 
thing in the visible creation around us, re-echoes the sound of 
our fall; and the roll which contains a faithful history of the 
world in its present state, is written within and without, with 
sin, and sorrow, mourning, and lamentation, and woe. 

It was into this scene of misery that Jesus came the second 
Adam. He came not to put an end at once to the conflict by 
simple power, and thus exhibit God merely in absolute sove- 
reignty. No; He must be shewn righteous in his sovereignty. 
God will proceed upon the principles of his own holy, ever- 
lasting, unchangeable law of moral rectitude. Hence the 
humiliation of Jesus, and his exposure, in our nature, to the 
malicious and reiterated attacks of the great enemy; hence his 
agony even unto death, the wages of sin. He conquered, law- 
fully delivering the lawful captive. He rose triumphant from 
the grave. He ascended to the right hand of God, invested 
with power, righteous power, as a victorious man, to bruise 
the serpent's head. Yet still, God mysteriously permits the 
continuance of the conflict. The time is not yet come, ap- 
pointed in his infinite wisdom, for the full manifestation in all 
its consequences, of the glorious victory which the second 
Adam has achieved. He has indeed explained to us the nature 
of the conquest, and commanded us, under a deep sense of our 
ruin, to put our whole trust and confidence in the conqueror. 
As many as, by grace, obey this commandment, trust truly in 
Jesus crucified and risen again, and join cordially on his side, 
in the still enduring battle between good and evil; have an 
earnest of complete and final victory shed abroad in their 
hearts. They are at once, and for ever, delivered from all 
condemnation. That part of the work of Jesus is finished, 
and by them laid hold of, by faith. The same faith works by 
love unto liberty and power. In proportion as they are de- 
livered from sin, they are delivered from slavery also. As 
they grow in righteousness, they grow also in royalty. And 
it is declared concerning them, that in the end, the image of 
Godshallbe restored to them, both in office and in character, 
they shall be kings as well as priests unto their God. At the 
second coming of the Lord Jesus, they shall attain perfection 
in the completed likeness, both in body and soul, of their risen 
Lord. Yea, they shall be one with him, members of his body; 
and having suffered with him in faith, they shall reign with 
him in glory. 

As the human king shall thus be restored, so shall his kingdom. 

His kingdom is the earth. The original grant will be found 

to harmonize with the final possession. And God said, Let 

us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them 

23 



104 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

have dominion over the fish of the sea* and over the fowl of 
the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over 
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.* This is 
the original grant. Now hear a prophecy of the final posses- 
sion. And the kingdom and the dominion, and the great- 
ness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall he given 
to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom 
is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve 
and obey himA And the Lord shall be king over all the 
earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name 
one." % Of the increase of his government and peace there 
shall be no ejid, upon the throne of David, and upon his 
kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and 
with justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the 
Lord of hosts will perform this.\\ Now hear an expression 
of the hope of those who in true faith wait for it. Neverthe- 
less we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and 
a new earth, wherein divelleih right eoicsness.^ Now hear 
the sovereign declaration of the perfected accomplishment of 
it. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make 
all things ?iew. And he said unto me, Write: for these 
ivords are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is 
done: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. 
I will give unto him that is athirst, of the fountain of the 
water of life freely. f 

But more particularly, consider the language of the Apostle 
Paul, in the 8th chapter of his epistle to the Romans. Having 
spoken of the spiritual adoption of the children of God, he con- 
nects it with the hope of an inheritance. If children, then 
heirs. He then connects present suffering with this hope, if 
so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified 
together. This mention of suffering seemed to detract from 
the hlessedness of the children: he hastens, therefore, to con- 
trast it with the object of hope, in comparison with which it 
has nothing. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present 
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which 
shall be revealed in us. The sufferings do, indeed, press the 
creature into an earnest expectation of relief; and there is 
relief at hand, in the great day of the manifestation, or resur- 
rection, of the sons of God. For the creature waiteth for the 
manifestation of the sons of God. A difficulty arises here 
as to the meaning of the word creature, but the 22nd verse 
seems fully to explain it. For we know that the whole crea- 
tion groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now. 

*Gen.i.26. t Dan. vii. 27. % Zech. xiv. 9. II Isaiah ix. 7. 

§ 2 Peter iii. 13. IT Rev. xxi. 5, 6. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1Q5 

There the same original expression is more unequivocally 
translated by the word creation. The Apostle, enlarging upon 
the present suffering, and future glory of the people of God, 
associates with them, both in suffering and in hope, the whole 
frame of external nature as it exists in this planet. The whole 
of what we call the animal, vegetable and mineral creations, 
which, because of their harmony and mutual dependance, and 
because they all together compose one world, are spoken of in 
the singular number as the creature, or the creation. This 
creation is personified, and we read here its history. It was 
made subject to vanity, or evil folly, as the word imports.* 
It is here implied that the creation was not originally in this 
evil state, and so we read, as we have already seen, Gen. i. 31. 
It was very good. There was no ca*use for groaning in it, for 
there was no pain. There was no room for it to hope for de- 
liverance; for it was in full possession of liberty, and holiness, 
and joy. But it fell under a curse, not by its own doing. It 
had no will. It was under the dominion of Adam. It was 
made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Adam's 
fall. He brought the curse upon it. He subjected it, in, or 
under, hope. He cast it down, from a state of enjoyment 
where there was nothing to hope for, into a state of degrada- 
tion and suffering where there is no true enjoyment except in 
the hope of deliverance. In the day that God pronounced the 
curse upon fallen man for his wilful disobedience, he cursed 
also, as we have seen, the unwilling, or unconscious earth, 
Gen. iii. 17. Thus the creation came into the bondage of 
corruption, under the galling yoke of which it has been ever 
since, and still is, labouring and groaning in pain. Not only 
does the ground produce noxious weeds, the clearing away of 
which wrings additional sweat from the cultivator's brow: but 
the living creatures also are at enmity one with another. The 
lion, the tiger, and the wolf, prowl about in haughty pride, 
and malignant watchfulness, to seize and devour the unsuspect- 
ing lamb. The eagle and the hawk mark, and, with ruthless 
talons, tear the trembling dove. The whale and the shark 
devour their thousands in the deep waters. And if you wish 
for a smaller, and more tangible, because more domestic proof 
of this universal enmity, behold it in the ensnaring web which 
the spider weaves to make the fly his prey. In the family of 
beasts, birds, fishes, insects, we behold the counterpart of the 
fallen family of man, the Cain and Abel, the murderer and the 
murdered. Yes, worse than the enmity of the ravenous beast 
or bird of prey, is the enmity of man. The whole creation is 

* Matsuotxt/— Used only twice elsewhere in the New Testament, and in 
both places, in an evil sense — Eph. iv. 17. 2 Peter ii. 18. 



105 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

pressed into the ungodly service of the intelligent rebel, man 
— who thus approaches nearer to the nature of devils, than 
either beast or bird can do. So little is he affected with the 
groans around him, that he makes use of the enmity of one 
creature against another to turn it into amusement for himself. 
He finds horses, and dogs, and foxes ready, and laying hold of 
their fallen propensities — availing himself of the image of 
Satan in them, he delights in it, and joins in the loud cry that 
has emanated from hell. Surely we may well say, the whole 
creation is under the bondage of corruption! Deformity is on 
its face! Impurity is in its heart! 

Are these thy glorious works, glorious God? Was it 
upon such a scene as this, thou lookedst in the evening of the 
sixth day, and said'st 'tis very good? Mysterious Father! 
though this scene had not an actual existence in that day, yet 
it was clearly in thine eye, and thou couldst have prevented 
it, but didst not. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in 
thy sight! Yea, it seemed better to thee to cast down in order 
to restore, than altogether to uphold, so as to need no restora- 
tion! 

But see, my brethren, even in the disjointed ruins, we may 
discern something of the magnificence and splendour of the 
original building. We cannot indeed mistake the use of the 
several parts, for the use intended by the great Builder; but 
we can discern something of their grandeur, even as they lie 
prostrate in the dust. You have heard of the ruins of Tyre, of 
the remains of Balbec, and Palmyra, and Pompeii — imagine a 
neighbouring shepherd to have constructed his hut, or a stall 
for his cattle, under a majestic but now isolated portico of 
polished marble — imagine a gang of robbers dividing their 
spoil behind some curiously carved pillars, or holding their 
midnight counsel of rapine upon some beautifully tesselated 
pavement; and you have something like the faint specimen of 
the disorder of the creation. You see that some dire disaster 
has plunged a magnificent city into ruins, you cannot mistake 
its present use for the use designed by the architect. 

Take another illustration, in the person of a poor fellow-crea- 
ture who is deaf and dumb. The shape and aspect are those of a 
man. The movements are of a man. The lips part with a 
human smile: the eye kindles with an expression of human 
feeling. But speak to him! there is no hearing. Hearken to 
him! there is no speech. Something is wrong; some dire dis- 
aster has befallen him. We cannot mistake the inarticulate 
mutterings of the helpless creature, for the sounds which were 
designed to issue from the human mouth. 

Such is this fallen world! But must it continue so for ever? 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. X07 

Shall the vessel so marred on the wheel, be never re-made by 
the hand of the potter? Hearken to the glorious answer which 
the Holy Ghost has given to this question; the creation itself 
also, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God.* Yes there shall 
be deliverance, at the coming and kingdom of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, whom the heavens must receive, until the times of 
restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the 
mouth of his holy prophets, since the world began. t Then, 
bondage shall be no more, but liberty. Corruption shall be 
no more, but glory. The curse shall be no more, but blessing. 

The Lord shall make all things new; a new earth, new 
animals, new fruits, the creation new; so that God, again be- 
holding the work of his own hands, shall say, It is ve^ good! 

A new earth! We, saith the apostle, according to his pro- 
mise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness.^ But shall not this earth be destroy- 
ed by fire? Yes, as truly as it was of old, by water: the 
Apostle gives the parallel. It is a fire not to annihilate, but to 
purify; and out of it, shall arise the new earth; the abode of 
everlasting righteousness according to the promise of the 
blessed God. It appears to be the common supposition, that 
the people of God will be taken to a place away from the 
earth, and the ungodly to another; and that when the one shall 
be sent to heaven, and the other to hell; the earth itself will be 
blotted out of creation, as though it had never been. My 
brethren, I am well persuaded, that this opinion, so generally 
and carelessly received, is not grounded upon the Scriptures 
of truth. 

New animals! The wolf, saith the Prophet, shall dwell 
with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; 
and the calf, and the young lion, and thefatling, together; 
and a little child shall lead them: and the cow and bear 
shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the 
lion shall eat straw like the ox: and the sucking child shall 
play on the hole of the asj): and the weaned child shall put 
his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor 
destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full 
of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.§ 

When the king shall be returned in righteousness; his 
dominion, in every part, shall be reinstated in harmonious 
subjection. The creatures, reclaimed from the consequences 
of the curse, shall be obedient to the Lord, and at peace 
amongst each other. There shall be no movement of resist- 
ance, or mischief, in all God's holy kingdom, on the earth. 

* Rom. viii. 21. t Acts iii. 21. 1 2 Pet. iii. 13. § Isaiah xi. G—9. 
23* 



108 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

New fruits! For a comprehensive description of the new 
creation, inclusive of the tree of life, with its twelve manner 
of fruits, and its leaves for the healing of the nations; see the 
chapter from which our text is taken, and the chapter follow- 
ing. I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, behold the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, 
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with 
them, and be their God. Jind God shall ivipe away all 
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more 
pain; for the former things have passed away. Jind he 
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things 
new. Jind he said unto me, Write: for these things are 
true and faithful. Jind he said unto me, It is done! I am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. This is the 
descriptive title of the Lord Jesus: the beginning, in whom 
all Jehovah's purposes stood from eternity; and the end, in 
whom they shall all be fulfilled, exactly according to their 
original design: for all are yea and amen in Him, to the glory 
of God the Father. 

After a highly figurative description of the new Jerusalem, 
the church of God, called by the name of that city in which the 
typical church dwelt; the Apostle proceeds, at the 22nd verse, 
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the 
Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, 
neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten 
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. This explains a remark- 
able passage of the prophet Isaiah. Describing the glory that 
shall be revealed when the Lord shall bind up the breach of 
his people, he says: "Moreover, the light of the moon shall be 
as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven- 
fold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord 
bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of 
their wound."* Jesus is the sun, and the church the moon. 
She gives a faint reflection of his light now; but then, every 
obscuring cloud of corruption shall have disappeared for ever, 
and her light shall be like his; and his light shall be trans- 
cendant in glory, as the light of seven days. 

The Apostle proceeds: And the nations of them that are saved 
shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring 
their glory and honour into it. This language is, in no way, ap- 
plicable to the state of things, in some other region or regions, 
quite away from the earth; but supposing the interpretation 
1 have given to be correct, this language is in perfect keeping. 
The Apostle adds: And he showed me a pare river of water of 

* Isaiah xxx. 26. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 209 

life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the 
river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, 
and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were 
for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse; 
but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his ser- 
vants shall serve him, and they shall see his face; and his name 
shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and 
they need no candles; neither light of the sun: for the Lord God 
giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever. And he 
said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God 
of the holy prophets sent his angel to shozv unto his servants the 
things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: Bless- 
ed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. 

Amongst the crowding topics for the application of this sub- 
ject, which present themselves, I will select, and conclude 
with, one. 

A large majority of mankind are free from those extra 
calamities which afflict a few; as blindness, and deafness, and 
madness. Behold, then, the efforts, the noble efforts, which 
are made by mere philanthropy, to mitigate these, the aggra- 
vated groans of suffering creation. Asylums, refuges, hospi- 
tals, spaciously erected, and liberally endowed, bear testimony 
to the zeal of man in the cause of his afflicted fellow man. In 
themselves they are so many monuments, in honour of the 
victories of humanity over selfishness; and, in their effects, 
they supply a sort of retail anticipation of the great redemp- 
tion. They follow, indeed, in the wake of Christianity, and 
where the gospel is best known, there they most abound. But 
they are largely supported without any direct reference to the 
truths or motives of the Gospel. It is important to observe 
this, and to bear in mind, that Christianity may elevate a whole 
kingdom into the enjoyment of the wide-spread blessings and 
benefits of civilization; while nothing more than a comparative 
remnant of the population are evangelized unto eternal life. 
A higher tone of moral feeling, a more sedulous cultivation of 
the tender sympathies, and instincts of animal nature, and a 
deference (amounting to terror) to the great idol, public opinio?i 
— these are effective to civilize, but impotent to save. 

The church of Christ is free from another class of calamities 
under which the majority of mankind labour; as ignorance of 
God, insensibility to sin, spiritual death, actual transgression. 
Alive to the existence of these evils in others; with an ear 
open to these groans, these maniac preludes to eternal woe: 
what is the church about? Where are the trophies of her 
spiritual conquests in these days? Oh! let the persevering and 



HO SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

effectual labours of the philanthropist, in the cultivation of the 
field of nature, touch, and stir up the Christian, to yet nobler 
achievements in the service of our God and Saviour. True, 
we have great difficulties to contend against. We are in a 
minority; and in all our efforts we have to stem the strong tide 
of the multitude, rushing to do evil. We are more hindered, 
also, by the great and active enemy of all righteousness, the 
Devil, who goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may 
devour.* He has, comparatively, but little objection to the 
efforts of unsanctified humanity. He cares but little, that the 
groans of three score years and ten be mitigated, if he can 
secure the groans of eternity. He sees nothing in the wide- 
spread conquests of civilization, which touches the turning 
point of salvation, and therefore he cares but little to disturb 
them. He harbours comparatively small enmity against a field 
of philanthropic labour; because, yet a little while, and the 
fruits are all his own.t Nay more! if he can render the pre- 
sent amelioration a ground of carelessness about, or false con- 
fidence for, eternity, he will rather aid, than retard the deceit- 
ful culture. 

But when he sees salvation going on — when he sees a man 
made sensible of his galling yoke of corruption, and struggling 
into the glorious holy liberty of the children of God; receiv- 
ing divine truth into his understanding, and his heart; and 
honouring Jesus, by casting the burden of his undivided con- 
fidence upon the all-sufficiency of his obedience unto death, 
even the death of the cross — then Satan is wrath indeed. His 
time is short with such a man. And, therefore, the virulence 
of his enmity is taxed to the uttermost of its malignant and 
persevering opposition, against the man and his work. 

But if the Christian Church be thus exposed to special oppo- 
sition, my brethren, we have more than a counterpoise in our 
special strength. For God himself is with us. The Holy 
Ghost dwelleth in us. As it is written, ye are the temple of the 
living God: as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in 
them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. On 
this truth is grounded that form of rebuke which the Lord 
Jesus addressed to his disciples: What do ye more than others? 

Oh! my Christian friends, be not deterred by difficulties. 
Up, and be doing. Be more resolute in the service of our 

* 1 Pet. v. 8. 

t Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his spirit, 
are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ: 
neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school authors 
say) deserve grace of congruity: yea rather, for that they are not done as 
God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doiibt not but that they 
have the nature of sin. — Article xiii. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. HI 

precious Saviour. Pray for more willingness to take up your 
cross daily, and follow his steps who went about doing good. 
We want labourers among you, men of prayer, who will come 
and help us. The ungodly rich are inaccessible to man. How 
hardly shall they enter the kingdom of God! But the poor, 
with scarcely an exception, are willing to hear the Scriptures. 
Come, then, christian brothers, give an hour in the day, espe- 
cially in the evening; deny yourselves the comforts of a 
domestic-fireside, and go, with the word of God in your hands, 
and the spirit of God in your hearts; go with tender affection, 
and holy zeal, to read the glad tidings of redemption in the 
habitations of the poor; and to encourage and quicken them, 
to attend the ordinances of the church. Is this too much to 
ask? Oh, remember, this world is not our rest in any sense. 
"There remaineth a rest for the people of God." 

Till Jesus comes, our labours must not cease; 
"Our joys are joys of conquest, not of peace." 

I will now conclude, by reading you a song of triumphant 
thanksgiving, which shall be sung in universal chorus by a 
ransomed creation, in the day when the Lord Jesus shall make 
all things new. 

sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvel- 
lous things: his right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him 
the victory. The Lord hath made known his salvation: his 
righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the 
heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth 
towards the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen 
the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, 
all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 
Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the 
voice of a psalm. With trumpets, and sound of cornet, 
make a joyful noise before the Lord the king. Let the sea 
roar, and the fulness thereof: the world, and they that dwell 
therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joy- 
ful together before the Lord: for he cometh to judge the earth: 
with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people 
with equity. # 

Even so come, Lord Jesus! 

* Psalm xcviii. 



H2 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 



SERMON VII. 

The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, in its ex- 
perimental and practical power, over the true believer's 
heart and life. 

Rev. iii. 21. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my 
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in hi"s 
throne." 

Is there any practical power in this doctrine of the second 
coming of our Lord? Is there any experimental application 
of this study of prophecy? yes, my dear brethren, there is 
much every way; especially because it addresses itself to one 
of the strongest affections of the human heart, one of the most 
influential springs of the believer's character. It sets before 
us the Scriptural objects of Hope. Of course, however, before 
it can have an experimental interest, or practical influence, it 
must be believed. It is unfair, because it is premature — it is as 
unreasonable as it is unscriptural, for those who do not believe 
the doctrine, to ask where is the application of it. Where, I 
ask, is the application of the doctrine of the atonement to the 
man who does not believe it? And if he will not believe it 
until he experiences the application of it, he will never believe 
it. For the only way in which any truth can become experi- 
mental, is through being first believed. Faith is the cordial 
reception of truth on the authority of God's word. Expe- 
rience and practice are the consequences. And for a man with 
a statement of the Bible before him, to say, I will not believe 
it till I feel its experimental power over me, would be, as if a 
gardener, with a young tree in his hand, were to say, I will 
not plant it, till I see it bud and blossom, and bear fruit. 

The primary inquiry to be made concerning the doctrine of 
the Lord's second coming, as concerning every doctrine, is, 
Does the word of God reveal it. I have been supplying you 
with an answer to this question, by pointing out several plain 
and decisive declarations of holy scripture upon the subject. 
My present object is, first, to give further explanation upon 
one important point; and then to call your attention to the 
way in which the whole subject does indeed become experi- 
mental, and practical, in the highest degree, when it is be- 
lieved. 

For this purpose I have selected this text from the address 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. XI 3 

of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the church of the Laodiceans, and 
through them, to all his waiting disciples, until his coming 
again. The words contain four statements, which may, for 
clearness sake, be arranged, and considered, in the following 
order: — 

I. Jesus overcame. 

II. Having overcome, he sat down with the Father, God 
Almighty, in his throne. 

III. All who profess his name, are called to overcome. 

IV. To as many as do overcome, will the Lord Jesus give, 
to sit down with him in his throne. 

1. Jesus overcame. Victory achieved implies a foregoing 
conflict. Jesus was in conflict. Almighty God, in the person 
of the Eternal Word, emptied himself of his absoluteness and 
omnipotence, made himself of no reputation, took upon him 
the form of a servant, was made of a woman, made under the 
law, made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion 
as a man, he became subject to conflict. He entered into con- 
flict with the enemies of man, and he sustained the conflict, 
and achieved the victory as a man of faith, and prayer, and 
dependance upon God the Father. The enemies of man, as 
enumerated and described in the holy Scripture, are the world, 
the flesh, the devil, and the grave. With all these Jesus 
entered into conflict, and over all these he was completely 
victorious. It accords not with our present object to enter into 
the details of his temptation. I need only remind you that 
they were real. In the truth of our nature, he was exposed. 
In the tenderness of our nature, he deeply felt, and suffered 
being tempted.* In the weakness of our nature, he was cut 
off, and laid in the grave. But in every thing he overcame. 
He knew no sin, and it was not possible that he should be 
holden of death. He rose triumphant from the dead, in that 
nature which he had assumed in its weakness, and now re- 
stored to its strength. And with all that truly appertains to 
perfected humanity,! he entered into the exercise of the sove- 
reign and universal dominion of God the Father. This leads 
to our second statement. 

2. Jesus, having overcome, sat down with the Father, God 
Almighty, in his throne. 

The throne of God the Father is thus described, Isa. chapter 
Ixvi. ver. 1. Thus saith the Lord: The heaven is my throne, and 
the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? 
and where is the place of my rest? and thus referred to, as a thing 

* St. John xi. 35. Heb. ii, 18, and iv. 15. 
t See the 4th Article of the Church. 



214 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

well known by the Jews, Matt, chapter v. verse 34. / say 

unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven; for it is God's throne. 

The meaning is, the invisible world. The worshippers of 
the true God worship nothing that is visible; therefore, while 
the idolatrous heathen had their visible idols enthroned on 
earth, as the guardians of trees, and fruits, and fountains, or as 
the patrons of wise, or eloquent, or rich, or drunken men, the 
Jews were taught to worship Him who is invisible, whose 
throne is the heavens, and who ruleth over all. If they look- 
ed upon the sun, or moon, or stars, they were taught that He, 
the great Invisible One, ordained them, "Binding the sweet 
influences of the Pleiades, and loosing the bands of Orion, 
bringing forth Mazzaroth in his season, and guiding Arcturus 
with his sons." On whatever visible thing their eyes fell, 
they were taught to ascribe its creation and preservation to 
Him "who fastened the foundations of the earth, and stretched 
the line upon it, and laid the corner-stone thereof, when the 
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy. 99 * 

When Jesus, therefore, after his resurrection, said to his 
disciples, All power is given to me in heaven, and in earth, the 
invisible and the visible worlds; he spoke, in fact, words of 
the same meaning in Jewish ears, as these words of our text. 
It was given to him to sit in the Father's throne, in absolute 
universal sway over creation and providence. 

Into the glory, the glory which he had with the Father 
before the world was, our risen Lord is entered, according to 
his own prayer, John, 17th chapter, 5th verse. And now, O 
Father, glorify thou me with thine ozvn self, with the glory which I 
had with thee before the world was. As the Eternal Word, who 
was with God, and was God, this glory was his, essentially and 
eternally his own. But as the Mediator between God and 
man, having taken the manhood into God, in the unity of one 
person, this glory is given to him, as the reward of his humilia- 
tion and obedience. He humbled himself unto death; there- 
fore God hath highly exalted him, as we read, Phil. chap. ii. 
8 — 11. "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled 
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given 
him a name which is above every name. That at the name of 
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things 
in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father." 

In the exercise of this universal dominion, he has especial 

* Job xxxviii. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1X5 

regard to this world of ours. No other world has the same 
kind of claim upon him. Man is his brother, and this world, 
which was made for man, is near and dear to him. His do- 
minion is over all worlds, but his peculiar family is here. His 
goodness is over all, but his personal sympathies are here. All 
things are in his hand of power, but this world leans upon his 
bosom of tenderness. This is the planet which Jesus loves. 
It is the Martha, the Mary, the Lazarus, the St. John, of crea- 
tion. It is in affliction, and Jesus feels with it, and comforts 
it. It is in the bondage of corruption, and Jesus will restore 
it to liberty, and purity, and loveliness. 

It is in reference to this peculiar love, and its blessed conse- 
quence to this world at his coming again, that Jesus speaks of 
himself as about to have a peculiar throne. He who departed 
into the invisible world, will appear on our earth, in like man- 
ner as he disappeared from it.* He will come, and rest in his 
love. He will make his abode here, and make this earth fit to 
be his abode for ever. And although as the Eternal Word in 
the unity of the Godhead, he will not cease to exercise univer- 
sal rule; yet as god-man, the head of the redeemed creation, 
he will make this earth the scene of the manifestation of God, 
the metropolis in this sense of the universe: and angels, prin- 
cipalities, and powers, in heavenly places, who already desire 
to look into these things, shall behold in the perfected church, 
the kingdom of Christ, the manifold wisdom of God. t 

This, his manifested glory on his return to the earth, is 
what we understand by his own throne, as contradistinguished 
from the Father's throne, on which he now sits. When he 
shall return, and sit upon his own throne, we read that thrones 
shall be set, and they who have overcome shall sit on them, 
and reign with Jesus on his own throne. They are thus de- 
scribed in two companies: 1. Those who were beheaded for 
the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God; and 2. those 
who have not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither 
have received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands. % 
The first seems to specify, with much distinctness, the literal 
martyrs, who sealed, and those who may perhaps yet seal, 
their faithful testimony in a violent death. The second in- 
cludes all true believers, who, in the integrity of sound prin- 
ciple, resist and reject all plausible compromises with evil, 
whether it be false doctrine or corrupt practice. This leads 
to the next clause of the words before us. 

III. We who bear the name of Jesus are called to over- 
come. The promise is made to him that overcometh. Vic- 
tory achieved, implies a foregoing conflict endured. Now, 

* Acts 1. 9—11. t Ephes. iii. 10, 11. t Rev. xx. 4. 

24 



HQ SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

beloved brethren, now is the time of our conflict. The world, 
the flesh, and the devil, are still our inveterate enemies, if we 
be truly on the Lord's side. They never cease from fighting 
against us, though the modes of their warfare may exceedingly 
vary, from the bold attack of a storming party, to the insidious 
underhand approaches of sappers and miners. It is not the 
beheading axe, or the racking wheel, or the flaming fagot of 
the beast, that we have at present so much to dread, as the re- 
ception of his mark, in faithless unholy alliance, in our fore- 
heads, or secret corrupt connivance in our hands. Our present 
risk is not to be burned for refusing to subscribe false doc- 
trines; but to yield to the infidel fashion of the age in esteem- 
ing all doctrines alike. Our risk is, that in order to avoid the 
odium of what is bigoted in the eyes of men, we shall sacrifice, 
or at least compromise, what is faithful and true in the sight of 
God. We have deceitful hearts, evermore betraying us into 
pride, and self-dependance, and self-righteousness, and hypo- 
crisy. We are in an evil world, abounding with temptations, 
varying with our varying weaknesses. Here are blandish- 
ments and allurements to flatter us into forgetfulness of God 
and eternity. Here are sneers and mockings, to deter us from 
holy boldness. Here also are disappointments, falsehoods, 
treacheries, to damp our confidence, and wither up our affec- 
tions. We are exposed to the malice of the devil and his 
angels, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wick- 
edness in high places. It is no easy matter to hold fast in the 
Lord, and overcome; neither worshipping the image of the beast, 
nor receiving his mark. 

Who can sustain us in the battle? Who can give us the 
victory? Only the Lord Jesus. He is our strength, he 
teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight, he subdueth 
our enemies under us, and makes us conquerors, yea, and more 
than conquerors in him that loved us. Only he can open our 
understanding to perceive the iniquity of the system around 
us: to detect its compromising hollowness: to see how it car- 
ries on its deceitful work, without proclaiming its true charac- 
ter; and so to be upon our guard against enticements into an 
alliance with a false world, in opposition to the truth, and ho- 
liness, and glory of God. 

But how does the Lord accomplish this gracious preserva- 
tion? By what instrumentality does he thus give us the vic- 
tory? The true and comprehensive answer is, by faith! by 
the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for.* 
By nature, the things that are seen, have prevailing power 
oyer the character of every man. They occupy his thoughts, 

*H.eb. xi. l.i 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1X7 

engage his affections, and influence his conduct. He walks 
by sense. He minds earthly things.* By the grace of faith, 
invisible things become influential things. The unseen reali- 
ties of eternity acquire a power, a growing, a commanding 
power over the believer's character. They occupy his 
thoughts, engage his affections, and sweetly constrain his con- 
duct. He walks by faith, faith working by love. He minds 
heavenly things. This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even ourfaithA We are kept by the power of God, through faith. % 
The power of God, in the secret operation of his grace, sustaining 
faith; and faith, thus graciously sustained, keeping alive the 
power of invisible things, and so preserving us from the mark 
of the beast, in our foreheads, or in our hands. 

True faith, duly instructed, exercises itself in every part of 
the work of God, which he has revealed to us in Jesus Christ. 
First, in what he has actually done for us, especially in Geth- 
semane and Calvary: and then, faith works by gratitude. 
"The love of Christ constraineth us."§ "What shall we ren- 
der unto the Lord, for all his benefits towards us?"|| Secondly, 
in what he is now doing for us on the Father's throne, ever 
living to make intercession for us: and then, faith works by 
confidence, "seeing that we have a great high priest, that is 
passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast 
our profession," — "let us come boldly unto the throne of 
grace."1F And thirdly, in what he will do for us on his own 
throne, he will give us a crown of life: and then faith works 
by HOPE. 

IV. This is the operation of faith which is addressed in our 
text. 

The food of this faith is every unfulfilled promise (i. e. pro- 
phecy) of God. Hope looks forward as gratitude looks back. 
Gratitude gives an impulse — hope supplies an attraction. This 
attraction is of prevailing power in our conflict. 

When Moses was in conflict, doubtless his gratitude was 
lively in the remembrance of the past mercies of God to Israel; 
and to himself, personally, from earliest infancy. Doubtless 
his confidence was strong and well-founded, in the conscious- 
ness of God's present love to him, and watchful protection 
around his daily path. Nevertheless, the prevailing power by 
which he was actuated, and by which he overcame, is plainly 
recorded to have been that faith which worketh by hope. He 
overcame the attractions of worldly ambition, refusing the 
proffered honour of adoption by the king's daughter. He over- 
came the love of sin, and the reluctance to suffer, which are 

* Phil. iii. 19. 1 1 John v. 4. X 1 Pet. i. 5. §2 Cor. v. 14. 

II Psalm cxvi. 12. IT Heb. iv. 14—17. 



113 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

natural to men, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the 
people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. 
He overcame the love of money, and the shrinking from re- 
proach, which are natural to men, and esteemed the reproach 
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; and all 
this, because he had respect unto the recompense of the reward* 
By faith he overcame. He believed the promise: and his 
faith wrought, and triumphed by hope. 

When Jesus himself was in conflict, the liveliness and genu- 
ineness of his gratitude cannot be questioned; neither can the 
strength of his holy confidence: yet here again it is plainly 
recorded, that the victorious operation of the mind was hope. 
He was, indeed, in conflict; his tender nature shrank in holy 
agony from the pain and ignominy of the accursed tree, and 
he cried, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. 
But he overcame, saying, nevertheless, not as 1 will, but as thou 
wilt. He endured the cross, he despised the shame. For the 
joy that was set before himrf the attraction of hope. 

Now we are in conflict, as we have seen, and called to over- 
come. And as an inducement to quit ourselves like men, to 
be strong, and steadfast, to hold on, and hold out to the end; 
the joy that is set before us, the recompense of the reward, is held 
forth to him that overcometh. We say nothing in disparage- 
ment of either gratitude or confidence, when we say, that the 
Lord Jesus has addressed himself also to our hope. To him that 
overcometh will I give! This is our Captain's watch- word in the 
battle to all his faithful and enduring soldiers. Mark, in his 
addresses to the seven churches, the reiteration, and the diver- 
sified form of the glorious promise, the recompense of the re- 
ward, to every one that overcometh. To him that overcometh 
will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of 
the paradise of God. He that overcomth shall not be hurt of 
the second death. To him that overcometh will I give to eat 
of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in 
the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving 
he that receiveth it. He that overcometh, and keepeth my 
works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a 
potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of 
my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He that 
overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I 
will not blot his name out of the book of life, but I will con- 
fess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Him 
that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, 
and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the 
* Heb. xi. 24—26. t Heb. xii. 2. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. \ \Q 

name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which 
is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my 
God, and I will write upon him my new name. To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I 
also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his 
throne.* Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, 
unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, foras- 
much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.t 
Oh, set your faces like a flint, to resist the world, the flesh, 
and the devil. Parley not with temptation. Touch not the 
unclean thing. Yield no secret connivance, where you would 
be ashamed to avow yourselves openly. Receive not the con- 
taminating mark of the beast in your hand, any more than in 
your forehead. In every transaction, private as well as public, 
set the Lord before your eyes, not only as a past benefactor, 
and present witness, and comforter, and helper, but also as a 
future rewarder of them that diligently seek him.i Be faith- 
ful unto death, and he will give you a crown of life. § For he 
is not unrighteous to forget your work, and labour of love, 
which ye have showed toward his name; and we desire that 
every one of you do show the same diligence, to the full assu- 
rance of hope unto the end. That ye be not slothful, but fol- 
lowers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises. || For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen 
is not hope: for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for? 
but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience 
wait for it. IT Rejoicing in hope: patient in tribulation:** see- 
ing it is written, Blessed is the man that endureth trial; for 
when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the 
Lord hath promised to them that love him.tt 

You will observe, my brethren, that in every case the re- 
ward is proclaimed to be a gift, not a debt; a free grant, a 
gracious promise from God. It is a fundamental principle of 
sound reason, no less than the authoritative declaration of holy 
Scripture, that no creature can have merit, properly so called: 
that no creature can make God his debtor, on the ground of 
retributive justice: for what has he, that he has not received? 
what is he, that he has not been made? what can he do, that 
he is not sustained and enabled every moment to do? that it 
is not his bounden duty to do? and even when perfectly obe- 
dient, is he not still an unprofitable servant? But God can 
make himself his own debtor, by uttering a promise. He has 
spoken. The word is gone forth from him in faithfulness, and 

* Rev. ii. 7, II, 17, 26—28, and iii. 5, 12, 21. t 1 Cor. xv. 58. t Heb. xi. 6. 
§ Rev. ii. 10. II Heb. vi. 10—12. IT Rom. viii. 24, 25. ** Rom. xii. 12. 
tt James i. 12. 



120 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT 

shalPnot return void. The faithful and true Witness, the 
Amen, God manifest in the flesh, has said, "Whosoever shall 
give to drink unto one of these little ones, a cup of cold water 
only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall 
in no wise lose his reward.* And now, if God were not to 
reward works of faith, and love, and hope; it would be un- 
righteous in him, not because they deserve, but because he 
hath promised; not because there is a title in them, but because 
there is truth in him. This is the basis of the doctrine before 
us; not the desert of a creature meritoriously working, but the 
faithfulness of the Creator graciously promising. Faithful is 
he who promised, who also will do it! 

It is most important to keep this distinction in mind: if we 
would avoid, on the one side, the Popish heresy of ascribing 
merit (ex condigno) to a creature's works; and, on the other 
side, that over-refinement of an anxious but too systematic 
scrupulosity, which, in its spiritual zeal for free grace, would 
go far towards erasing from the Bible the oft-recurring word, 
reward: and so would confine the believer to the impulses of 
gratitude, and deprive him of the attractions of hope. 

And are the attractions of hope small, or inoperative? I 
would ask you, from your own experience, honestly review- 
ed, what are the things which possess the strongest hold upon 
your affections, and, consequently, exercise the most powerful 
influence over your lives? Are they things past, however 
delightful in themselves, and fragrant with emotions of grati- 
tude? or are they things to come? Is memory the mainspring, 
or is hope? I fearlessly appeal to the experience of the human 
heart. Take an instance in one of the earliest and sincerest 
stages of the human character — that of boyhood. What is 
most influential over him? What are the boy's most practical 
feelings? Recollections of former happiness, of benefits con- 
ferred, and kind attentions shown by his parents and friends? 
Is it the remembrance of these, expatiating over years that are 
past, and invigorating his gratitude at every stage of the re- 
view? Or is it hope? Hope! hope is the bounding, buoyant 
power that wings the heart, and nerves the arm. 

Take another instance. Contemplate the husbandman. What 
has most power over him? What most habitually occupies the 
play of his inner man, and thus gives its real complexion to 
his character? It is gratitude, in warm and influential recol- 
lections, of the past mercies of a bountiful God, in giving and 
preserving to his use, the kindly fruits of the earth? Or, is it 
hope, in the anticipation of the coming harvest-home? 

Again, contemplate the merchant. What has most power 

* Matt. x. 42. 



OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 121 

over him? What intertwines itself most constantly around 
his waking thoughts — presenting itself, unbidden, on the sur- 
face of those meditations which flow instinctively from the 
fountains of his heart, and form part and parcel of his real 
self? not perhaps of what he seems to be to most men who 
know him, but of what he is, in the sight of God. Is it a 
grateful remembrance of former operations,successfully brought 
to issue? Or, is it hope, picturing in lively colours, the wind- 
ing up of present open and yet pending transactions? 

It may, indeed, be said, that such instances fail in their ap- 
plication, because they are all derived from the natural charac- 
ter of the man in his unconverted state; whereas Christianity 
sanctifies and strengthens the principle of gratitude, and so 
makes all the difference. 

But will it be alleged that Christianity sanctifies gratitude, 
and leaves hope unsanctified? Will it be maintained, that an 
instrument of such power over the natural heart, has been over- 
looked in the practical working of true religion, by Him who 
knew what was in man? Oh, no! The truth is, that the 
whole moral machinery of the human heart and mind becomes 
sanctified, under the power of the Gospel, by being supplied 
with holy objects to work upon; but the mode of working re- 
mains the same. Faith works by motives, as truly as the 
natural will: though the motives are derived from a different 
class of objects. By faith Moses refused, choosing, for he 
hoped.* He refused Egypt, choosing Christ, for he hoped for 
glory. Without faith, he would have refused Christ, choosing 
Egypt; for his hope would have been worldly wealth and 
distinction. The mode of the mental operation, and the con- 
sequent practical influence over the life, is the same in both 
cases: and if hope be, as we have seen it is, the mainspring of 
active energy in the natural heart, so it is also in the regene- 
rate. Who, with the Bible in his hand, can hesitate to admit, 
that the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ is held forth 
as the grand object, the morning star, nay, the rising sun of 
the believer's hope? And does it not therefore follow, by un- 
deniable consequence, that the doctrine of the Second Advent 
is truly a practical doctrine? 

God hath done all things well for us. By the gracious 
power of the Holy Spirit, given unto us freely, according to 
the distinguishing purpose of everlasting love, our hearts are 
drawn to contemplate Jesus Christ, and him crucified. The 
world is crucified to us, and we unto the world. Thus we 
become detached, from the inordinate affections of things below. 
But this is not enough. We need an object of attachment. 

* Heb. xi. 24, 25, 26. 



J 22 SERMONS ON THE SECOND ADVENT, &c. 

And we have it, in Jesus Christ, and him coming again. Thus 
hath God provided for us, in the cross, a power of separation 
from this fallen earth: and in the crown, a power of attraction 
towards the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Let 
us joyfully avail ourselves of both: and while, looking back 
unto Jesus crucified, we experience and cultivate the constrain- 
ing love of him who first loved us, let us look forward also, 
and realize the quickening energy of what the Apostle Paul 
calls, that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great 
God, and. our Saviour Jesus Christ.* 

The Second advent practical! What saith the Scripture? 
Is watchfulness a Christian duty? "Watch, therefore," saith 
the Lord, "for ye know not the day, nor the hour, when the 
Son of Man cometh. ,,J t Is patience a Christian duty? "Be 
patient, therefore, brethren," saith the Apostle, "unto the com- 
ing of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the 
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until 
he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient; 
stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."+ 

Is moderation, in the use of all the possessions and enjoy- 
ments of this world, a Christian duty? Hear another Apostle 
— "Let your moderation be known unto all men: the Lord is 
at hand."§ In a word, Is the path of Christian duty the path 
of universal obedience? Hearken to a third and fourth Apos- 
tle — "Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, 
what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversa- 
tion and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of 
the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be 
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise (laying hold of that 
promise, the food of the faith which worketh by hope; we, so 
believing and hoping, according to his promise) look for new 
heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."!! 
"And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, 
even as he (Jesus) is pure. "IT 

Go then, beloved brethren, and, reposing the sure and quiet 

confidence of your souls on the word of the Lord, plough, and 

sow, and water, and wait in hope, for fail hfulis he who hath 

promised, who also will do it. And, He that shall come, 

will come, and will not tarry. 

even so come! 

* Titus ii. 3. t Matt. xxv. 13. % James v. 7, 8. § Phil. iv. 5. 

II 2 Pet. iii. 1 1—13. IT 1 John iii. 2—3. 



\ 2Z. 




JfrkJa) 



SERMONS 



ON 



THE SECOND ADVENT 



OF THE 



LORD JESUS CHRIST. 



BY THE 

REV. HUGH M'NEILE, M. A. 

Minister of St. Jude's Church, Liverpool. 



PHILADELPHIA.- 
ORRIN ROGERS, 67 SOUTH SECOND STREET 

E. G. Dorsey, Printer. 

1840. 



PROSPECTUS. 



2Tlte SLfteralCst. 

The subscriber proposes to republish under the foregoing 
title, in the form of a Magazine, a series of Treatises and 
Essays which have appeared in England within a few years 
on the Scripture prophecies — especially such as relate to the 
restoration of the Jews to their own land — the premillennial 
advent of our Lord Jesus Christ and his millennial kingdom. 

Two numbers of the work at least will be given in every 
month, and will be executed in a style of which this number 
is a specimen. The Magazine will be charged to subscribers 
at the rate of $2 50 for eight hundred and sixty -four pages, 
payable in advance. 

It will be the endeavour of the subscriber to select only such 
works for republication as are commendable for learning and 
piety; and which are also such as seriously disposed persons of 
different denominations and persuasions, holding in substance 
to the doctrines of the reformation, may read, not only without 
offence but with pleasure and advantage. 

As it is not the purpose of the subscriber to make any direct 
efforts to procure a patronage for the work — and as a continu- 
ance of more than S64 pages will depend upon a competent 
support — it is suggested to those who feel an interest in this 
kind of learning to aid, as opportunity offers, in extending its 
circulation. 

The mode of republication which the subscriber has adopted, 
will frequently prevent him from giving the whole of a work 
at a single issue; but it is presumed this objection or inconve- 
nience will be compensated by the greater cheapness at which 
the same amount of matter may be furnished in this form, and 
by the greater convenience of transmitting it to subscribers 
residing out of this city, at short and stated intervals, by the 
mail. 

It is the desire of the subscriber not to awaken expectations 
which, in the diversified judgment of the patrons of the work, 
may not be in every case fully realized. He will therefore 
only add, that it is his intention not to repaint in this Maga- 
zine any work which has not been well received and strongly 
approved by persons of sound learning and piety in Great 
Britain. 

Persons who will procure subscribers for ten copies of a 
volume, and remit the money to the subscriber in advance, 
shall receive a copy gratis. 

ORRIN ROGERS, 

67 South Second Street, Philadelphia. 






.' ■ ■ ,- 



BOOKS PUBLISHED B\ ^RRIN ROGERS. 



THE AMERICAN FARMER'S INSTRUCTOR, 

OR PRACTICAL AGRICULTURIST; 

Comprehending the Cultivation of Plants, the Husbandry of the Domestic 
Animals, and the Economy of the Farm; together with a variety of Infor- 
mation which will be found important to the Farmer. By F. S. Wiggins, 
late Editor of the Farmer's Cabinet, Mechanics' Register, &c. &c. 1 vol. 
8vo. 



THE SACRED WREATH; 

OR, CHARACTERS AND SCENES OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

Illustrated by Distinguished Writers of Great Britain and America. 

WITH TWENTY-FOUR ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL. 

Bound in Turkey morocco, or fine calf, extra gilt, 1 vol. 18mo., $3; bound 
in muslin, $2. Also, a cheap edition, without plates, bound in muslin, 62| crs. 



THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN, 

WITH A SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

BY JOHN FROST, ESQ. 

To which is added, the New Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania. 

In 1 vol. 18rno., full bound. Price 40 cents. 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 

OF THE 

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF SALEM, NEW JERSEY. 

BY JOHN FENWICK, ESQ. 

With many of the Important Events that have occurred down to the present 
generation, embracing a period of one hundred and fifty years. By G. R. 
Johnson, Esq. In 1 vol. 18mo. Price 50 cents. 



MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 

Reprinted from the Library of Useful Knowledge. 
In 1 vol. 18mo. Price 25 cents. 



SPLENDID COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING. 

"THE LAST SUPPER." 

ENGRAVED BY KEARNEY, 

From a Print by Raphael Morghen, after Leonardo Da Vinci's celebrated 
Picture, which was painted on the walls of the Refectory of the Dominican 
Convent of the Madona del Grazie, in Milan. 

O^T In addition to the foregoing, O. R. has a great variety of 
Books and Periodicals, both English and American, constantly on 
hand, which he will dispose of at the lowest prices. 



c; 






« 

0* ^ 



o 









4? •: 






<* •«"77?»" «0* 






O • » 










* • vfltok - \/ Sggfi. \/ /' 






*!i^w* ^ 4? •!%. 








</ %'^V v^ f V V'^'V 




o • * * A 






& 






^ MAY 82 



N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 











+> -< 



Tra^_ 






